Compassion calls

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today concentrate our thinking about compassion. The situation which the Prophet Elijah encounters in the passage from the First Book of Kings is that the widow who has taken him in and fed and sustained him through a time of famine is now faced with the death of her son and she is wondering if that death is connected to the presence of the prophet in her house. Some rabbinical writing about this text identifies the possibility that the righteous presence of the prophet Elijah has illuminated her sinfulness for which the death of her son is punishment. Father Larry Gillick comments on how so much of our prayer and relationship with God is about us. This is quite human but our relationship with God invites us as some rabbis think it invited Elijah to see the love and compassion of God as witnesses who are not the focus of the event. Our perspective as we consider Elijah at Zarephath and, through the Gospel of Luke, Jesus at Nain is one of witness to compassion for literally, the widow and the orphan. The tragic truth about our world today, as noted by Bill Gates at the International HungerSummit, is that we have the capacity to feed all the people of the world. The revelation of the truth of Jesus which Paul experienced, and which, according toFriar Jude Winkler, gave him the role of Apostle to the Gentiles. In this role, Paul declared the freedom of the Gentiles from the prescriptions of Jewish tradition. As we work with the Spirit to detach our need and story from our prayer to God may we move with compassion to address the needs of the widows and orphans of today?