­God had sent the prophet Elijah to deal with a starving widow. The trouble was that she was in a foreign land instead of with the many Jewish widows in his own country.

Jesus rubs this fact in.

Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon (Lk 4:25-26).

Jesus is referring to the story from our First Reading. In it Elijah sets out not at all to help the Zarephath widow and her tiny son but to demand food for himself!

She says she has in her jar “only a handful of flour” and “a little oil.” She had been collecting wood to cook the very last meal she and her young son would ever eat before they would die of starvation and thirst! Elijah was demanding, in effect, their last meal for himself.*

Ok. But Elijah was following God’s own instructions in issuing his imperative. The Lord had told him to go to a certain town in Sidon where God had designated a widow to provide for Elijah in the famine and drought (See I Kings 17:1-9)!

Elijah got what he wanted.

He asked first—politely, we hope—for water. The widow turned on her heel to get the last little bit she had. A great spirit. As she went, Elijah shouted after her to bring him bread too!

In the famine!

The widow went to do his will.

But God had a trick up his sleeve. Elijah called out again, almost as an afterthought, “the God of Israel says, ‘the jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” God would keep the vessels full until the drought was over.

The widow had only these puzzling words to rely on. But rely on them she did. She bakes her tiny scraps of bread, in front of the wide eyes of her son, and takes all of it, every bit of it, plus the water, to Elijah.

Does this story make sense?

No.

Is there an explanation?

Yes.

This widow knew God so well that she trusted in his goodness even in the face of impending death. Her last act would be one of trust.

And this is the real meaning of trust, to release our own control of things. When the chips are down, let go and let God. Even in your last extremity.

God had sent Elijah to help the widow, not rob her. But she first had to trust.

She did.

In the Gospel, a second widow illustrates the same kind of trust, putting the last two pennies she has to her name into the collection box. Jesus sees this happen and understands the depth of her faith.

I suppose the question then turns to you and me. How much trust do we place? Do we do it in fear?

Alternately, how much do we trust God?