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11 November 2018                  Thirty Second Sunday Year B

SMALL CHANGE?

When the man at the checkout apologised to the woman for giving her so many coins in her change the woman said “No, that’s fine. I need some small change for Church tomorrow.” The supermarket cashier looked surprised but the woman didn’t notice.

In the Temple the coin boxes were made in the shape of a horn or trumpet. People queued up and then threw their coins in. You could tell what they gave by the sound that the noise made. The two coins that the widow put in were called “lepta” which means “thin”. They were the smallest denomination of currency. But they were her last.

Jesus doesn’t condemn the rich people who put in more money than the widow, but he does praise her for her wholehearted generosity. For there is one important difference between them: the widow didn’t give the leftover money she had; she gave all that she had. The rich people could afford to put in more but she couldn’t. She gave to God all that she had and then simply trusted that God wouldn’t let her down and would take care of her (like the widow in today’s first reading from the Book of Kings).

This gospel is not intended to accuse us of being stingy with our donations to the Church collection (though that might be true too!). Rather it serves to point out the difference between “what” we give and “how” we give it. The widow made her donation not out of guilt or fear but because she was in love with God. Nothing of what she had was to be held back from God.

Anyone can serve God from their surplus. What counts, though, is serving God when it means making a sacrifice. And this applies to all areas of our religious practice, not just money. Are we prepared, like the widow, to place ourselves entirely in the hands of God or do we need some form of safety net, just in case? Is the practice of our faith unconditional or do we hold back? In fact, is it possible to serve God and yet keep a nest-egg held in reserve?

Apparently not, says Jesus. And so he was unconcerned by the smallness of the widow’s mite but mightily impressed by the way she gave it.

This poor widow has put more in than all those who have contributed to the treasury…all she had to live on.                                                                                    (Mark 12: 42-44)