PARISH
MARIA HIETZING
33rd Sunday of the year - lectionary year A
World Day of the Poor "Caritas Sunday"
Parish Maria Hietzing Prov 31, 10-13. 19-20.30-31
Sunday, 19 November 2023 1 Thess 5:1-6 10.15am Mt 25:14-30
Dear community!
Today, 19 November, is the feast day of Saint Elizabeth. Elisabeth, born in Hungary, was married to Louis IV of Thuringia as a young girl in 1221. After her husband's early death on a crusade in 1227, relatives took care of her and she came to Marburg an der Lahn. She built a hospital in Marburg and took a vow of poverty. She devoted her entire life to supporting the poor and caring for the sick with selfless love. She died at the age of 24 on 17 November 1231, and 19 November is the day of her funeral. St Elizabeth is the great saint of active charity, the great model of charitable action, the great example of commitment to the poor, the hungry and the sick. This Sunday's gospel could be called "the gospel of commitment". The man who is travelling (cf. Mt 25:4) appoints his servants as stewards of his property and instructs them to work for this property, to work with all their abilities and to manage it. Their commitment is required! The Gospel mentions three servants as examples, two who actually work for the assets entrusted to them as a positive example and one who, as a negative example, does not. Where does the criticism of the one who does nothing come in? It is not laziness or indifference; it is fear and a lack of trust. The third servant is inhibited from acting and working out of fear and lack of trust, unable to apply himself. Looked at the other way round: Those who want to act and work, who want to commit themselves, can only do so if they have built up trust in the cause and in the people behind it. Because we have to be aware of this: If I stand up for something, then I expose myself, then I have to give something, I have to be prepared to give something of myself. This requires trust and, admittedly, a certain amount of courage. - St Elizabeth had this trust, this courage to help the poor. I will not gain courage if trust does not give me security. A lack of trust automatically makes me insecure, paralyses me - the third servant does nothing in his insecurity; he does not commit himself. Where do I gain trust for my commitment? Where and how do I gain the confidence that my commitment is - to put it in Viennese - g`scheit? With this question, I step out of the sphere of life experience and philosophy into the sphere of faith in God; I have to think about my image of God and man. In the Jewish-Christian image of God and man, having another person in front of me - especially in his needs and wants, with his illnesses and suffering, with his problems and difficulties - means having God in front of me. Each of us knows how challenging this thought can be, how strongly we sometimes resist it inwardly or how much we lack the strength to do so.
Eva Kaiser, a contemporary Salzburg artist, paints starving children begging for food. They are not even begging aggressively, but their sad faces wordlessly betray their need. This painting is on display this year in the Klosterneuburg Abbey's annual exhibition "Die guten Werke. Artistic Positions of Charity". The artist herself has provided the following text as an explanation of this painting entitled "Breath of Life" in the exhibition catalogue. "You call yourself a Christian and just walk past me," the voice resounds in me. -"Lord, beloved Father, where are you? I have not seen you!" - "Don't you see the children, the needy? Every gift reduces their burden. Fill the plate and you will carry me part of the way. And more and more you will feel the breath of life within you, which permeates, inspires and animates you - for my pleasure."
Eva Kaiser thus explains the Christian image of God and man very vividly. St Elisabeth of Thuringia lived this image of God and man with her commitment. Today's Sunday Gospel demands this commitment from us at all levels of our lives. Where do I have the confidence in this image of God and man so that I can succeed in this commitment? Does the image of God shine out of every face around me? Where do I shrink back in uncertainty or where do I remain paralysed? Can a face that doesn't look like God at all be transformed into a divine one through my commitment?
Anton W. Höslinger Can.Reg.
Wolfgang Huber (ed.), the good works. Künstlerische Positionen zur Nächstenliebe, volume accompanying the exhibition 2023 at Klosterneuburg Abbey, Klosterneuburg Abbey 2023, 92
