Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Mark 12:38-44

“‘… but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.’”

We live in a society where values contrary to the Gospel are canonized.  A person’s value is measured in economic terms.  The poor are shunned as worthless.

God has a different set of values from those of our society.  When Jesus saw the wealthy putting large amounts of money into the collection box of the Temple, He was not impressed.  It was not as if the wealthy should not have given large sums, but Jesus was looking for something else.  He saw that something else in the poor widow who donated only two small copper coins.  He explains to us what He saw:  “[The wealthy] have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

It was the generosity of the widow that mattered, not the amount that she gave.  We are called to be generous people, unselfish in all our relationships with others.  God does not value us for giving our money; or, for that matter, for giving our time and talent.  God values us for the generosity from which our giving flows.  Generosity flows from the love that we receive in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.