The Gospel we just heard poses a very simple question,
but it cuts deep, right to our very core:
how much are you and I willing to give to Jesus Christ?
It’s not necessarily a matter of money.
The widow in the Gospel didn’t just give a donation.
As Jesus said, she gave everything she had to live on.
She put everything on the line.
How much will we put on the line?
Blessed John Newman, the great English protestant
who became Catholic, gave a sermon one time
in which he posed a similar question.
He asked whether we are really putting anything at risk for our faith.
And he made the point that quite a lot of us
probably would make most of the same decisions,
whether we believe in Jesus Christ or not.
We would probably have the same job, the same life, and so forth.
That is really quite a question, isn’t it?
What can you and I point to in our choices, in our lives,
that really is different, because we follow Jesus?
Many of our parents have rejected contraception,
and made other sacrifices in welcoming more children
and in making sure they have time to be with their children,
to give them every advantage as followers of Jesus.
They are thinking not only of this world, but the world to come.
There are spouses who struggle, but they hang in, to keep their vows.
I can imagine there are folks in business who have made decisions
that no one else knows about, taking a loss or forgoing extra profit.
There are probably many stories that could be told –
but we don’t tell the stories –
about forgiving a wrong, enduring mockery, taking the harder path,
because of the words of Christ and for love of him.
Still, there’s that widow. Not a rich person. A poor widow.
She gave not just something, but everything she had.
At this moment, I really think I’m in the way;
I’m interrupting a conversation
which is really between each of us, and Jesus himself.
He’s the one who makes the invitation.
He is the one who calls us:
come, follow me – and Peter and Andrew, James and John
left their nets; their livelihood; everything they had.
Jesus calls you.
Your Creator and Redeemer speaks to you as only he can.
He has prepared your life and given you your gifts.
What will you answer?
1 comment:
There is a lot to ‘unpack’ here. It helps me to start at the end and work backwards, that what I have came from the Father and belongs to Him and I am entrusted to use it to help accomplish His will. So the widow sees the coin as property of the Father entrusted to her. She is fearful that she would be thought untrustworthy with even this tiny amount and she values her relationship with God above everything, even the means of a poor widow.
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