Faith, here 🙂 …I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on the story of ‘the widow’s offering’ as told in last Sunday’s Gospel (Mark 12:41-44):

^” Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

When most of us hear the phrase “she gave everything”—we think of the big things, the medical doctor who dropped it all to become a missionary in a foreign country, those who bravely forfeited their lives in martyrdom out of love for their faith… “everything” feels like such a big, unreachable concept to most of us living in the humdrum of our day to day lives.

I think that’s why, for many years, I read this Gospel story and, while moved by the widow’s generosity, never felt that I could claim solidarity with her or know what it is to give out of my poverty- I have always been very blessed when it comes to having my needs met.

Yet, when we look at our lives a little more closely , a little more through the eyes of Christ, we may see things differently….we find that we have the opportunity, more often than we realize, to imitate this generous widow in the way that she gives…out of her poverty, from her own places of need.

To my dear sisters who give from your poverty-

to the sleep deprived mother who, despite her own utter exhaustion from all that this vocation asks of her, stays awake long into the night to tend to her sick child,

to the teacher who stays after class to encourage and pour into the struggling student, who gives the time she doesn’t have to make an investment into another,

to the college student overwhelmed by responsibility who, despite her growing to do list, spends an hour in adoration to pray for those she loves,

to the woman experiencing loneliness who takes the time to comfort a friend with a hurting heart, even as her own aches within her,

to the woman in her season of waiting who chooses to sing praise even as her hope wearies,

to the women who’s ministries have sprung from their woundedness, those who have lost children and spouses and mothers and fathers, who have every right to mourn yet who use their proximity to pain to bring empathy and healing to others,

to the woman worn down by the weight of her own cross, who sees the need in the life of another and meets it even as her tired heart cries out “I have nothing left to give”-

To you, this giving may feel small, “ordinary”, perhaps even meaningless, but to Jesus who sees to the depths of you, it means everything.

And when this happens, when we give in this way, we are graced with understanding in a tangible way that Jesus IS sufficient, that He IS enough- even when we are not.

Oh- how learning this, how understanding it, how accepting its truth to the deepest fiber of our beings can transform our lives.

The belief that we CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens us becomes a tangible sign of His might and power- when we give that which should empty us completely only to find that still more remains.

When that wise and generous widow gave up her last two coins, she knew what she was doing was not merely an act of generosity, but one of trust. She gave everything because she trusted completely. She held nothing back because she did not fear the vulnerability it would require.

In so many ways, her generosity mirrors that of our blessed Mother- who held nothing back from her Father, not even her own life. She gave her “yes”, she surrendered all that she had…and out of over poverty, God raised our Salvation.

What about us, sisters? We all have places of poverty. We all have needs. And often, I think, we are more generous than we realize.

But the question we need to ask ourselves is- do we let Christ in to those places of poverty? Do we welcome Him into our moments and seasons of need? Do we recognize that we have the power to give everything away, even in the chaos and lackluster of our ordinary lives? Do we do so joyfully because we trust that our God is who He says He is?

I pray that we will.  That we will look at our hearts, and our lives, and all that we give through new eyes- so we can see the places God is working to transform and sustain us.

Let us put in everything and watch as from our poverty, God brings forth abundance.