Daily Reflection Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

We focus on the brief gospel passage today from Luke 21 that, along with Mark 12:41, immortalizes that poor widow and her “mite.” The mite, or lepton, was the smallest value coin in ancient Israel. However, it wasn’t worthless like our pennies are. It was worth then what about one and a half dollars or so is worth now. But even that is misleading because people in ancient Israel often survived day to day on such amounts. Thus, it isn’t as if this poor woman is giving away everything she had and will live in destitution afterwards, since she would probably be able to find that meager amount the next day. But she did give away her day’s support, her daily bread, little as that was.

Why did she do this, is the question. For there are many reasons that people give to what we today would call “charity.” Many are based in guilt or a fear of social stigma that might label us as stingy or selfish. The fact that Jesus notices and praises this woman to his disciples (in Mark’s fuller account) must mean that this woman’s motives were not selfish or fearful. Rather, she actually saw others as in even greater need than her poor self (since she had two coins, after all). She could still offer help even if it meant that she might suffer for it. That is definitely along the lines of Jesus’ saying, “Greater love than this no one has, than to lay down one’s life for their friends.” 

To fully understand this passage we must look at the passage that preceded it in Luke. There in 20:47 Jesus tells his disciples and all the people listening, to be wary of the scribes. “They devour the houses of widows and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” The scribes were in charge of the moneys collected in the Temple for all sorts of for-profit purposes. These moneys were then often lent out to the needy at high rates of interest (the primary injustice that caused Jesus to cleanse the Temple). If any payment on such loans was missed, the scribes would ruthlessly foreclose even if it meant leaving the loaner desolate and homeless. We also recall Jesus’ condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees for their convoluted way around the commandment to honor father and mother in Mark 7:9-13. Thus, Jesus lays at the feet of the scribes and Pharisees the terrible injustices done toward widows in order to enrich themselves. It was these same Pharisees and scribes who then urged the people, with all the religious motivation and obligation they could muster, to give to the poor (they, of course, would then keep some of those donations).

Mark’s account of this event begins by telling us that, “Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.” This little detail of Mark’s is so telling. Jesus must have observed everything going on around him in his day, good and bad. I’m certain that nothing ever escaped his notice or that he was ever ignorant of anything. We can say with great assurance that Jesus had full awareness, fuller than anyone else ever has. Thus, Jesus was not praising the fact that a poor woman felt compelled to give from her meager resources, something wrapped in abuse and injustice going back years, but rather that despite that injustice, her heart remained ever generous and loving. Therefore, her small offering amounted to more than all the large gifts of the rich, for her motive was pure, based only in love and love’s willingness to sacrifice for the beloved. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”