Commentary on the Gospel of
Mon Nov 21st - Lk 21:1-4
Jesus observes how each person puts his offering into the moneybox of the Temple. Everyone spends according to his own assets. They are all willing to freely contribute towards Israel’s cultural expenses. Yet the difference between them, in Jesus’s sight, doesn’t lay on the amount each one is giving, but on what that amount signifies for him, and on what it signifies before God. God sees and values the heart.
The difference that matters depends on giving money or giving life. The question is: do we give what we have in excess, or what we need for life? Do we give on the grounds of our wealth, from what we have, or out of our poverty? The safe of the temple is just an image for what we actually offer to God, to the community, to the poor; what we spend for the needs of every kind, material and spiritual.
Offering what we already have: time, knowledge, faith, assurance, is not so much and not so important as offering ourselves when we say: I have not enough for myself. Giving just when we are in peace, enthusiastic, willing, is good, but being available even when we actually might need someone to hear, understand and support us; this is the poor widow’s grandeur.
Partaking in poverty, this is finding the purest source of God’s love. Jesus on the cross had humanly nothing, but he gave us life.
