A GENEROUS, SELFLESS LOVE
Saturday of the Ninth week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Though some people seem delighted with themselves and what they have to contribute to the world, most of us probably feel we don’t have much to offer. I think Jesus is telling us today it is not the amount that counts, it’s the quality. “They gave from their surplus wealth,” Jesus said about the well-off people, “but the poor widow gave from her want, all that she had to live on.”
When inspired by love a little can become a lot, a pittance can become a truckload. When there is a generosity of love, tininess becomes titanic. No matter how many natural gifts or abilities you were born with or acquired since, the love you put into their use gives them a value far beyond what is obvious to the beholder.
Jesus is comparing the world’s value system with the value system of heaven — heaven’s, of course, being the one we should be more concerned with. The value of our actions may be good for the here and now, and we hope they are, but Jesus wants us to know that all we do can also contain value that will last for eternity. Though the widow contributed only “two small copper coins worth about a cent into the temple treasury,” her selfless love gave them a value that would not only somehow affect people on earth, it would echo forever throughout the halls of heaven.
Maybe what you do here goes unnoticed; maybe your efforts accomplish no beneficial visible effects for anyone, but don’t let that discourage you. Whatever you do from your heart touches the life of someone somewhere with the love and graces of God.
Just for today take some time to consider the giving that occurs in your community, your country and around the globe. What is the reason behind the gift? Determine opportunities for personal giving, not out of abundance but from substance.
“I want you to observe,” said Jesus, “that this poor widow contributed more than all the others who donated to the treasury.” How is that, we might ask? She gave herself.
