THE WIDOW’S MITE November 10, 2024

The value of something is not necessarily the same as its price.  

     In the gospel Our Lord impresses upon us the truth that the real value of the widow’s offering to the temple was far greater than the tiny sum of “a mite” (one penny) which was its price.

     Our Lord commented on the fact that wealthy people were putting much larger sums into the treasury, but those sums represented what we would call their “disposable income”, whereas the widow’s penny represented all she had to live on. In other words, it was a real sacrifice she made.

     Anyone counting that collection will hardly have noticed a single penny, but Our Lord says that the widow’s generosity and conscientiousness surpasses that of the rich who probably didn’t even notice the poor woman anyway. That leads us to the question: what is the value of what we give to God? Our Lord doesn’t disdain any gift given with a good and generous heart.

     There are so many people who are indeed generous like that. Not a few of them are quite wealthy and give generously. Yet what some people give may still amount to “small change” from a week’s income. In some of the passages from our weekday gospels Our Lord has spoken to us about the importance of using money, which He calls “that tainted thing”, to win friends who will support us in our journey to the next life.

As it is wisely said, “there are no pockets in shrouds!”, which is, of course, another way of saying: “You can’t take it with you when you die!”  

                                                                       ~ FR. PAUL DOBSON