Widow's Mite

HOMILY NOTES

FR. TERRY RYAN, CSP

BOOK OF KINGS 17: 10-16 & MARK 12: 41-44

NOVEMBER 11, 2018

I hear some senior citizens say that they are too old to do much.  They don’t have their former stamina, eye sight, hearing, and so on.  They are full of aches and pains.  I am old and feel washed up frequently.  Well we may be past our prime when we compare and contrast ourselves with other younger more vigorous persons.  In comparison we focus on our “less” and their “more.”  

In the “Widow’s Mite” Jesus is more impressed not with how much one gives in comparison with someone else, but rather with how much one gives of what they have.  Jesus does not compare and contrast.  His challenge is to surrender all and not worry about its absolute quantity/quality relative to another person.  

On page 164 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous it says, “Abandon yourself.”  Well, there is not much to give up or abandon.  By this point a person very likely has lost job, health, money, friends, family, and maybe even a roof over their head.  But the point in not quantity of surrender but the act of giving whatever you are, and all of it.  That is the point of surrender.  Trust.  Hope.  Spiritual renewal does not come in the absolute amount but in the amount relative to what we have to give.  No half measures here.  

So even if we say that we have next to nothing to give, it is good enough for God if we give this “next to nothing.”  It seems that God does not want us just to apologize for our wrongs, or give up bad behavior.  God wants the “all” of us.  Whatever we have left when we hit bottom, is enough for God. Why not say, “I will give it my all,” instead of a flat “no”  the next time someone asks for help.  You are not in charge of the results.  God is.