Saturday, Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel reading, a poor widow displays an extraordinary generosity of spirit. She gave a very small amount of money to the Temple treasury, only two small copper coins, but it was all she had to live on. If generosity is measured not in terms of how much we give but in terms of what we have left after we give, then this widow’s generosity knew no bounds. Her tiny contribution to the Temple treasury would have gone unnoticed by others. However, it did not go unnoticed by Jesus. The Lord sees more deeply than the rest of us. He saw that the widow’s small gesture revealed a large and generous heart. In giving a little, she was giving everything. Jesus knew that his disciples had something to learn from this widow, which is why he called them over and drew their attention to her. What can we learn from this poor widow? There are times in our lives when we may have little to give, little in the way of material resources, or, perhaps, little in the way of time or energy or enthusiasm. Yet, the widow shows us that we can be just as generous, if not more so, at such times than when we seem to have a great deal more to give. She teaches us that what matters is not how much we give but the generosity of spirit that lies behind it. In giving a little, we can sometimes be giving our all, if a little is all we have to give. A small gesture at a certain moment in our lives when we are weak and frail can have a greater value in the Lord’s eyes than a greater gesture when we are much more able. Just as Jesus noticed the widow’s generosity when most others would have ignored her, the Lord notices our generosity at those times in our lives when we seem to have very little to give. In giving the little we have, when it is all we have to give, we are walking in the footsteps of the one who gave his all on the cross when it seemed that all had been taken from him.