Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 503

He said, "I tell you truly,
this poor widow put in more than all the rest;
for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood."




On my way to greatness I was often put off by gospels like today's. I heard preachers assure their congregations that the "quiet lives" they lived, on the margins of great historical developments, overlooked by the influential and the powerful, were nonetheless honored by the Lord of Heaven and Earth. I got the point but I wanted to think I would -- or could or should -- make a difference.
I got over it.
As I watch the powerful from afar I see how they are driven by power; and, despite their delusions, they are not at all in control of what they're doing, thinking, saying or feeling. Wall Street, it's been said, is driven by fear and greed. The powerful in general are driven by fear and avarice.
Only those who despair of having power, who let it pass them by, who welcome their powerlessness might be given the blessed insight of Jesus. In their willingness, generosity and courage, they can, if they choose, "put in more than all the rest."
I have lost the quotation I'd love to cite; but Thomas Merton was asked how he felt about being successful. He was outraged by the question and replied, to the effect, "Be a fool, be a scoundrel, be a drunk, but at all costs avoid success! If I one time wrote a book that was successful, it was the worst mistake I ever made!"
Jesus, arriving in Jerusalem and en route to Calvary, saw this woman and was cheered by her courage and generosity. She was not cowed by the ostentatious characters all around her, as they noisily dropped jangling coins into the collection. She knew her own worth in God's sight, the worth of her two copper coins, and the worthiness of God -- whom she loved with all her heart, mind, soul and strength.
The good deeds of the faithful make a difference not because they're well-intentioned and not because they are "good" but because the Holy Spirit inspires them. God's deliberate, far-seeing, essential, creative impulse calls them from nothingness into being. Fear, greed and avarice create only phantasms of progress; they are shadows that disappear in sunlight.
The only memory that endures is God's. He notices us as Jesus noticed the woman. He remembers as we remember her two copper coins. Of another unnamed woman, Jesus said,

Amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”