The Widow's Mite

[A reflection on the Gospel for the Mass of the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, November 10, 2024. This and the other readings for today may be found here.]

Today's Gospel should hit a discordant note with all of us who pay attention to what goes on around us. How many of us know religious leaders who dress very well (in Jesus' day long robes meant "not working class" as they tended to get in the way and were used by the wealthy who did not need to engage in manual labour), like to show up at high-profile events in a conspicuous manner, and take prominent place in gatherings of the faithful? How many of us ARE those sorts of religious leaders and maybe feel just a wee bit unsettled about this? If we are honest, we will admit the truth of this.

Our Lord tells us to be wary of such, and the example He lifts up in this next passage tells us why. People are making their contributions to the operations of the Temple. The wealthy and influential made large contributions, often with a great show, but out of what they had it was likely a pittance...there was no real commitment from them, no real sacrifice on their part, and often had a self-promotional air about them (somewhat like the pride of place being in the platinum giving level on the annual Temple promotional flyer). Our Lord then points out a woman who gives everything she has, quietly and without attracting attention; she is poor, she makes no show of it, she is humble, but she still believes in the mission to give everything she has.

This is not to say that the poor should give disproportionately, but more to say that we should be taking our leadership queues from them. We should be looking to those in the faith who believe in giving everything they have to the Kingdom of God and still trying to stay out of the limelight, to stay humble. In the days to come, look carefully around you at those who profess the faith. Elsewhere Our Lord says, "By their fruits you shall know them," so we should look around to see who are the ones giving their everything and making the life of others' their priority as they further the work of the Kingdom of God...and we should strive to be more like them.