XXXII-B: 1 Kings 17:10-16; Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44

Some time ago, a father punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty.

He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness. He kept the gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

Mark tells us that Jesus was in the Temple watching people. The poor widow who came to make her gift to the Temple treasury did not know she was being watched. This widow does nothing for show, her generosity is spontaneous. Her kind of generosity is only possible after a lifetime of giving, after decades of small deeds of charity, small acts of fidelity, of obedience and self-renunciation. 

She gives all, and she has nothing left. The widow has staked her life on this gift. These rich people do not know the end of their money. Their gift is not once and for all. They can repeat their giving. There is plenty more where that came from. They are the kind of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. There is a contrast between the noisy rich and the quiet and discreet widow. Like that child who had nothing but the kisses in the box, so this widow had nothing but two coins and she put all that quietly in the treasury.

We require total surrender to do such a giving. The tragedy of our lives is that often we hold some part of us. There are many barriers that block our total surrender to God: fear, pride, selfishness and confusion.

It is not the amount of gift, but what matters is the sacrifice behind it. Few people will show willingness to give up their comforts for giving contribution for a good cause. For us charity is to take out what is not necessary immediately. But the church teaches us today that charity should carry   a tint of sacrifice with it. The woman of the first reading had to make sacrifice to feed Elijah. The poor woman in the Gospel had to give up everything that she had saved for the day's expense.  So their offerings became precious in the sight of God.

Secondly, real giving is reckless, and symbolic of love. The woman could have given one coin and kept the other for herself. She could have kept both for herself. But she decided to give everything she had, and she did so.

In a few minutes you will be asked to make your annual commitment pledge. What is the criterion we apply to make the contribution? Though the widow’s attitude is ideal, I wouldn’t encourage you to do that. How about the Pharisees approach, give in a way not hurt me at all. Only from the surplus? Well, Jesus did not commend that either. May be a middle way? I think we need to see the needs of the parish first. We need $7250.00 every week to meet the budget.

When we feel we are losing by giving to the Church we wouldn’t feel like giving. Someone said No one ever become poor by giving.

A priest once asked one of his parishioners to serve as financial chairperson of his parish. The man, manager of a grain elevator, agreed on two conditions: no report would be due for a year, and no one would ask any questions during the year. At the end of the year he made his report. He had paid off the church debt of $200,000. He had redecorated the church. He had sent money to missions. He had $5,000 in the bank. Needless to say, everyone wanted to know how. The man quietly explained, "You people bring your grain to my elevator. As you did business with me, I simply withheld 10 percent and gave it to the church. You never missed it."

When we give if we ever think that we are going to go less by that, our willingness will diminish and we would withhold form giving. The bible says, God blesses the generous giver. If we believe that God will return it to us some other way, our giving will have more generosity.

The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry ( 1 Kings 17) for the widow who supplied bread for Elijah. Let her attitude of obedience and self sacrifice inspire us to examine ourselves; and practice our charity with an element of love and sacrifice.