Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

November 8, 2009

Imagine what it must be like for a widow in times before social security and pension plans. Widows were very vulnerable. Even now with 401k’s tanking it gets very scary.

That’s why the stories today of the widows in Holy Scripture are so astounding. When they are most destitute, they are asked to give more. There is an insanity to this teaching. it surely is counterintuitive. It is almost as bad as being taught to love your enemies.

Picture that scene at the temple. Jesus was sitting off to the side watching the people come into the temple treasury. There was a large metal funnel into which people would drop their coins. There was no paper money, no checks to write, credit cards to swipe or Electronic Fund Transfers.

Some of the wealthy would come with their servant carrying the coins. They would dump them into the funnel in such a way to make the most racket and call attention to their giving. There would be techniques to let the coins slip through their fingers gradually in order to prolong the length of the clatter of coins. I thought maybe we could invent something opposite of a slot machine. When you put a large amount in the collection basket there would automatically be a loud ding, ding, ding such as you hear at the Casino when someone wins a jackpot.

Then came the widow, destitute and beleaguered. She comes to the funnel and there is this sound. Chink. Chink.

Jesus calls his disciples over and says. "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."

This story applies well today as we struggle with foreclosed homes, catastrophic retirement plans, and a medical insurance crisis. To ask to give in this environment seems to be insensitive to the crisis. The Word of God is telling us that this is not the time to draw back and hunker down in a survival mode. No, it is an opportune time to give, not from our surplus, but from our want.

The widow would have walked away from the treasury empowered, renewed,

"I had gone, begging from door to door, on the road to the village, when your gold chariot appeared in the distance, and I was wondering who was this king of all kings! My hopes rose and I was thinking, ‘the bad days are over; and I was already expecting spontaneous alms and riches scattered all over in the dust.

The chariot stopped where I stood. Your eyes rested on me and you got down with a smile. Suddenly, you extended your right hand and said, ‘what do you have to give me? Ah! What royal game was this, to beg from the beggar! I was at a loss and perplexed; finally, I slowly took from my bag a very small kernel of wheat and gave it to you.

But how great was my surprise when, at day’s end, emptying my bag on the ground, I found a very small grain of gold in the middle of the heap of poor grains of wheat. I bitterly wept and thought, ‘would that I had had the courage to give everything I had." (R. Tagore, L’offrande lyrique. Paris. 1949)

Blessed are you, God our Father

You choose those who have nothing

Here they are, rich in faith.