Monday, November 26, 2018

"Two Small Coins" (Luke 21: 1-4)

In today's Gospel, Luke 21: 1-4, Jesus shares with us his watching people put their offering into the treasury.  He notices, among the wealthy persons contributing, "a poor widow putting in two small coins". Jesus says to us: "I tell you truly, this poor widow 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."  I couldn't help but think of persons at the end of their day giving God the gifts of their service to others that day and then the elderly sitting in nursing  homes or assisted living facilities, grieving the fact that they have so little to give, no energy, falling asleep as soon as they sit in their recliners and not "being useful" to anyone anymore. "How come I am so tired," an elderly woman in her nineties complained to me today. I suggested that maybe her body is simply worn out from all of the years of her services to others when she was active and that today all she has to offer God are "two small coins."  

There are days for all of us, young and old, who come to the close of a day and believe that all we have to offer are "two small coins." Those "two small coins" offered humbly to our God are worth as much as, if not more that the 8 hours of hard, exhausting teaching hours in a classroom, or doing whatever,  when the ego proudly proclaims how hard it worked on a given day that we proclaim successful!

Sometimes, all you and I may have to give the Lord at the close of a day is what seems like failure and weakness with no accomplishments of which our egos can boast. Will Jesus not then say to us: "I tell you truly, you put more in the treasury today than on days when your egos were able to boast of all they accomplished because from [your] poverty, [you] offered [your] whole livelihood."  What we deem failure is in fact, spiritually speaking, a huge success from Jesus' perspective.  Let us offer to God our all, our livelihood, however meager it seems to us!

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