Dear friends,

Today's Old Testament reading and the Gospel story present us with two remarkable widows who challenge us by their conviction, generosity and faith.

The first widow is down to her last handful of flour and a tiny bit of oil. Elijah asks her to bring him a little cake, even before she prepares something for herself and her son. Should she trust Elijah’s God? Or should she follow her motherly instincts to feed her child first?

She decided to trust God and his prophet and gives all she had to live on. The prophet’s promise of a never-ending supply of flour and oil comes true.

In the Gospel, we see a widow who puts her last two coins into the Temple treasury. Jesus comments that her contribution was “all she had to live on.”

Literally, the Greek says she “gave her whole life.”

The quality of her giving, “she gave all she had”, makes her great. For her, almsgiving was not intended as a show to impress others but an expression of love of God and trust in his Providence .

Jesus praises the poor widow's offering, and makes it clear that the standard measurement for assessing gifts is not how much we put in the collection basket, but how much we have left for ourselves.

What matters is not how much money is stored in bank accounts but rather for what that money is destined.

What strikes me about Jesus in this episode is his gaze! Jesus sits and looks.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus means learning to look at things the way he looks at them. His way of looking at things should become ours. Unless we learn to see people, things, and situations with his eyes, then we have not yet become his disciples.

His disciples during this scene attention is somewhere else. They seem to find something else more interesting.

Thus, Jesus first has to show them something to which they have been paying no attention: the poor widow. What is there to see, apart from her poverty?

Something that only Jesus has noticed, because his gaze never halts at externals: she has put more than anyone else into the offertory box, she has put everything she has, all she has to live on: literally, “her whole life.” The poor widow is doing what Jesus is soon going to do: give his life for us completely.

Our Parish, compared to the parishes around us and, most so, to the parishes in the suburbs, resembles the “poor widow” of the Gospel’s story.

Wendy has prepared a sign-up lists for the various jobs required to run the parish and to claim ownership on it. What is your contribution? What has been your contribution so far?

Whatever you can offer: money, time, prayers, talents will make a difference. Are you convinced of this?

Are you ready to toss your two pennies into God’s coffers? Do you realize that the future depends you’re your generosity?

We want now to sit and consider in silence: “What can I do for the Church?” and not “what the church can do for me?”