32 Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. (Mk 12:38-44)

A poor widow also came and put in two small coins.

The two small coins are called lepton in Greek. The lepton is the smallest denomination. The widow, therefore, was really poor.

It is also interesting to note that in Israel there are two kinds of persons that are often in dire straits: orphans and widows.

I remember a saying that goes this way: Give until it hurts. It hurt the widow to give even such a small sum.

What is Jesus teaching us today?

What value is he reminding us? I believe Jesus invites us to be generous with God, to be "bukas-palad" (literally, open hands). Nay, he is inviting us not only to be ready to give our "things" to him but more than that to surrender ourselves completely to him.

This reminds me of someone who said that the ability to give (and generosity for that matter) is a sign of maturity whereas selfishness is a sign of immaturity. To bring his point across he pointed to the baby. The baby is selfishness personified. When it is hungry, it will wail and won't stop until it is fed. Never mind that it's parents are tired and fast asleep. When it needs a change of diaper, it will cry its lungs out until its diaper is changed. It expects everyone to be at its beck and call. Notice the hands of the baby. They're closed. Its hands symbolize it's "selfishness".

But the baby's hands do not remain closed. As it grows older, its hands gradually open up. And that should be the natural development of human beings, too--from selfishness and self-centeredness to generosity and the ability to care for another.

How generous does God expect us to be? What degree of self-surrender does God demand from his disciples?

I remember many, many years ago I attended a retreat. Our retreat master was involved in the charismatic renewal. In the evenings he invited us to what we call now LSS (Life in the Spirit Seminar). The night before the last night of the retreat he invited us to undergo the baptism in the Holy Spirit (which others prefer to call release of the Holy Spirit in order to avoid confusing it with the Sacrament of Baptism). But he said that there was a very important requirement. We must be able to surrender ourselves completely to God. Concretely, he said we must be able to tell God and mean it: "Lord, if you want strike me blind now I am ready."

An advertisement for a bed says: I want 1/3 of your life. Jesus is not satisfied with that. He says: "I want 100% of you." Are we ready to give him that?