Jesus and a Poor Widow
Today’s liturgical Gospel reading comes from Luke 21:1–4. Jesus looks at the people in the temple putting their donations into the collection, and he sees an impoverished widow giving her last two small coins.
He looks at her and announces, “This poor widow put in more put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”
It’s an inspiring story that speaks to me and tells me to open my heart to those in need. It tells me to be more generous, more trusting, and less selfish.
It’s easy to use this story to point the finger at others, especially the uber wealthy of our day who are regularly try to escape their duty to give. They look to acquire more and search for ways to escape being generous.
The system we’ve created rewards the wealthy for being wealthy and for getting wealthier while it punishes the poor in their poverty. There’s a lot to be judgmental about.
Yet, I have to look at myself first. Giving from my surplus is easy. I can give if… if I have enough time, if I have enough money, and if I have enough skill. Mostly, I can give if I have enough want to.
But if I don’t think I have enough for myself, I’ll just keep what I believe is rightly mine.
Liturgically, it’s helpful to remember the week’s theme is Christ the King. Sunday was the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, and the Gospel reading from Matthew 25 demonstrates that Christ is king in the most paradoxical way. Christ is king, not a Caesar-like emperor that so many want and long for. He is a king who reigns in poverty, weakness, and vulnerability.
He is the “least of these.” He is the person in poverty, the orphan, the prisoner, the hungry, the chronically ill person, and the widow.
In today’s Gospel reading, Christ takes on the identity of that poor widow who put in everything. He is her.
St. Paul reminded his readers in Corinth, “For you are well aware of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Although he was rich, he became poor for your sake so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2Corinthians 8:9).
Jesus didn’t give out of his surplus; he gave his very life and his very self. He is a poor widow who gives her entire life savings to the treasury to be used in God’s service — which is in service of the “least of these.”
But the paradox is that she was one of the “least.” A poor widow in her society was as good as dead, and Christ the King identifies with her.
She could have rightly been concerned with her own condition, but she wasn’t looking at herself. Her gaze was outward as she looked for ways she could serve others in need.
This is true generosity, true worship, true grace. This is divinization and theosis in the most ultimate way that any of us can possibly experience here and now. This is what it means for Christ to be king — union with those who suffer and those in need. It’s solidarity with those who cannot will themselves to power regardless of how hard they try.
As much as this Gospel reading is for all of us — especially as a judgment against those with wealth — it is a lesson for me to examine my life and heart to discern ways of becoming more generous, especially as we move into Advent and toward Christmas.
