Gospel (Mk 12:38-44)

And in his teaching Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and to have salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

And he sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him, and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.”

Commentary

In today’s Gospel passage, Saint Mark narrates the episode of a poor widow who offers a few small coins in the Temple, and thereby earns our Lord’s praise.

Jesus’ words about the generosity of that good woman who “put in everything she had” shows his deep joy and admiration for her.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had praised the “poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven” (cf. Mt 5:3). Poverty is a Christian virtue that helps us give material goods their true value and put all our desire and strength into attaining imperishable ones.

Sometimes this virtue will be lived amid the lack of material goods, even those that seem necessary in life. At other times, poverty will not involve this scarcity of goods, but the need to foster the desire to achieve imperishable goods will be the same. Therefore poverty is a virtue that has a lot to do with greatness of heart and also with freedom, to avoid being enslaved by earthly goods.

During Saint Josemaría’s stay in Argentina, in one of his many get-togethers there, a middle-aged woman spoke with great simplicity about the fact that she was poor. She also said that she had never felt unhappy because of her humble condition. But she acknowledged that at that moment she did feel sorry at not having more possessions, because she would like to be able to give more things to Saint Josemaría so that they could be used in the service of souls

In the footage that exists of that moment, we can see how moved Saint Josemaría was by that woman’s words, poor in earthly goods but very rich in desires for generosity and dedication to God and others. We can imagine that our Lord would have felt something similar on seeing the widow putting those coins into the Temple treasury.

Let us ask our Lord to help us live true Christian poverty, which makes us freer to love God and our brothers and sisters.