November 11, 2018 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’s accounting system is by pieces; God’s is by the beats of the giver’s heart. By human counting, those who had dropped large amount into the Temple’s donation box gave more. But by God’s accounting system, the widow who dropped two small coins made the bottom line. Others may have donated the amount that was right, but Jesus was more impressed with what was left for the widow to survive.
Shyly she dropped the coins so that the clinking sound may not proclaim how little she had donated. Neither blowing of horns nor clanging of cymbals announced her charity; just the humble beats of her heart to whisper to God her love and devotion. The whisper, no matter how soft, and the heartbeats no matter how faint, God heard and appreciated. In praise of the widow Jesus declared: “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.” (Mark 12:38-44).
Jesus looks at the heart. In the case of the widow, her heart was total even though her donation was in fragments. It was the totality of the widow’s love that Jesus found very pleasing. The widow’s act moved Jesus because it prefigured his total oblation at Calvary. There, Jesus shed the last drop of his blood for sinful humanity.
So the point of today’s Gospel reading is not that we give away everything. No we shouldn’t leave ourselves with nothing for the days following. But in case in an outburst of faith any of us gives away everything, rest assured that God wouldn’t be outdone in generosity.
– (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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