Total giving

November 08, 2015
32nd Sunday
in Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
1 Kings 17:10-16
2nd Reading:
Hebrews 9:24-28
Gospel: Mark 12:38-44

As Jesus was teaching, he also said to the people, “Beware of those teachers of the Law who enjoy walking around in long robes and being greeted in the marketplace, and who like to occupy reserved seats in the synagogues and the first places at feasts. They even devour the widow’s and the orphan’s goods while making a show of long prayers. How severe a sentence they will receive!”
Jesus sat down opposite the Temple treasury and watched the people dropping money into the treasury box; and many rich people put in large offerings. But a poor widow also came and dropped in two small coins.

Then Jesus called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all those who gave offerings. For all of them gave from their plenty, but she gave from her poverty and put in everything she had, her very living.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

Man counts by bits, God by the heart’s beats. By the human counting system, those who had put in large amounts into the Temple’s donation box gave more. But by God’s accounting system, the widow outdid them all, for God counts by the heartbeats. The former may have donated the “right” amount. But Jesus was more impressed with that amount, which was probably what was “left” of the widow’s resources.

Shyly she dropped those coins so the clinking sound won’t give away the amount. Yet the little she gave sprang from the richness of her inner fount. No blowing of horns or clanging of cymbals announced her donation — just the humble beats of her heart to whisper to God her love and devotion. No matter how soft that whisper, and no matter how faint those heartbeats were, God heard and appreciated her.
It was the totality of the widow’s love accompanying her giving that Jesus found so pleasing. The widow’s act moved Jesus because it prefigured his total oblation at Calvary. There he was to shed the last drop of his blood for sinful humanity.

But the point of today’s Gospel reading is not that we give away everything, leaving ourselves with nothing for the days following. The song “What matters most is that we love at all” can also be said of matters of the soul. So don’t worry if the amount you give is not the totality of your assets. Worry instead if your act of giving is not accompanied by the totality of your heartbeats. While man counts by bits, God counts by the heart’s beats. But in case in an outburst of faith you give everything away, rest assured that God wouldn’t be outdone in generosity. — Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.frdan.org.

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