Luke 21, 1-4:
“I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than anyone else. For the rest have cast in what is left over, but she who is in want has cast in all that she had to live on.”
Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said: “Your actions may be a grain of sand in the desert, but the desert would not be the same without that grain of sand”.
The widow in today’s Gospel can be that grain of sand. Her gift in the treasury of offerings is insignificant.
But Jesus blesses her because “she has given all she had to live on.
She has given the best of herself. She has given everything without fear of losing it.
She has given herself.
It costs us relatively little to give things, but it costs us enormously to give ourselves.
To give ourselves in our time, in our projects, in our plans, in our joy, in our commitments…
We do not know the name of this poor widow. But she certainly earned her place in heaven for a few pennies. It was all she had to live on.
I entrust myself to her today, asking her to know how to give the best of myself to the Church and to everyone else.
I invite you to do the same.
Good day.
Antonio Maria Sanjuan Marin, cmf