Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
In our Gospel today, we encounter a stark contrast between the piety and spirituality of the Jewish Scribes, the materially wealthy, and a poor widow. I think it’s fair to say the first two groups failed to embrace their poverty, while the widow, fully alive in her poverty, gave herself and what she had to God with reckless generosity. In what ways are we impoverished? Today may we receive the grace to trust God more and to invite him to transform us in the areas of our own need.
The Jewish Scribes were highly regarded scholars and “lawyer-theologians.” Among the most eminent of Jewish society, the Scribes were esteemed by the people who treated them deferentially and with great respect. Some used their high position as religious leaders to disguise an empty piety and even as a cover for fraudulent activity. Lacking poverty of spirit, they sought status and prestige. Rich in the eyes of men, they suffered a deep poverty in the eyes of our Lord.
Jesus observes people putting their offering into the temple treasury. The currency of the day was all in metal coins, so as the wealthy tossed their large sum of copper into the treasury chests, it would have made a noisy clang. I can imagine how, for some, perhaps many, they enjoyed the admiring glances or even the applause generated by such an ostentatious demonstration of their charity. Such a display is not unlike that of the Scribes who prayed loud, lengthy prayers, made a show of taking their places of honor, and received the accolades of the people with hubris. The Scribes and the wealthy, all “rich” in their own ways, gave to God from their surplus. What inner obstacle kept them from trusting God with the entirety of their wealth, not just their leftovers?
Next comes the poor widow. Ironically, in her we see the “wealth of the Church” and Jesus himself. Her two tiny coins were the smallest Jewish coins in circulation. They probably made no sound at all as she dropped them into the chest. Jesus calls his disciples over, saying, “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.” She who appears to be the most impoverished, emerges as the richest in Jesus’ eyes.
What can we learn from this humble widow? She gave to God not out of her “extra,” but out of her very substance. Those two coins came not so much from her purse as from the richness of a pure heart and poverty of spirit. Her gift meant she trusted God wholeheartedly to be her Provider. Such reckless generosity mirrors that of God himself, whose charity toward us is abundant and unending, even to the point of sending His own beloved Son. Her treasure was not an earthly treasure – God was her treasure and she God’s.
As I ponder the characters in our Gospel today, I recognize in the Scribes and in the wealthy a love of self and perhaps an inordinate self-reliance. They seem to trust in themselves, their abilities, and their resources and position more than in God. In the case of the wealthy, the critique is not of their wealth, but rather their relative stinginess. The widow demonstrates an undivided heart and utter trust in God. Her love for God is all-consuming; she’s all-in with her faith and confidence in God.
I invite us today to ask ourselves, to what extent do I trust God? Ultimately, it’s a lack of trust in God that leads us into sin, causes us to rely on ourselves or our resources more than God, and causes us to falter in our charity. As I pause to consider the areas of my life in which I struggle to trust God, I recognize my own poverty. May we each ponder today the poverty in our lives – is it material, spiritual, relational, physical? What is it that I struggle to surrender, what part of me do I withhold from God? And let us ask God for the grace to trust him more and to surrender more fully in these areas. May we, like the widow, invite God into our poverty, trusting him to transform us in our weakness and to demonstrate his power. We thank you and praise you, God, the One who cannot be outdone in generosity.
In the Body and Blood of Christ,
Elizabeth Wells