Today’s gospel: Luke 21:1-4
The Holy Spirit included this story of the poor widow’s contribution in order to challenge us who are not as poor as this widow. Though there are very many poor people in the world, not many as are poor as this widow, who only had “two small coins” (v.2). Widows then had to fend for themselves, and they had no one to support them. By giving “from her poverty,” she “offered her whole livelihood” (v.4b), forgoing even the very little that she had.
For what? In order to give honor to God. What she put in would not have materially affected the temple treasury, but what she really put in was her whole self, her whole heart, manifesting a total commitment to God that transcended self. She certainly was not self-referential. She was self-sacrificing, unlike most of us.
Many of us are more like the “wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury” (v.1). Though few of us are wealthy, we certainly have enough, perhaps even more than enough. But do we give to God and to His Church what is their due? Do we even “make offerings from (our) surplus wealth” (v.4a)? Or do we keep all, if not most, of what God has entrusted to us to ourselves?
God calls us to give our all. When it comes to money, the gold standard is the poor widow. Whenever we give our pittance, or we do not give anything or much at all, we must listen to what the Lord Himself will tell us: “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest” (v.3).
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