Murals (2008) by PHANTAST - Graffiti - Cultural Music & Art Association inc. - 98 Milne St. Benleigh
COMPLETE ABANDONMENT TO GOD.
One day, Jesus sat opposite the temple treasury, in the Court of the Women. The place was crowded with people dropping their offerings in one of the 13 trumpet-shaped receptacles that hung on the walls. But Jesus had eyes for one of them. He watched as a widow deposited two small copper coins, less than a day's wages. Quickly, He called to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, 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". No one else would have noticed the woman. But Jesus, with eyes that penetrated both her circumstances and her heart, recognized the astonishing nature of her gift. Her gesture was a sign of complete abandonment to God.
We know nothing of the widow except her poverty and faith. Without faith, she wouldn't have offered her last penny, believing God would care for her better than she could care for herself. But there is yet another, more subtle aspect to her story. How easy it would have been for her to conclude that her gift was simply too meager to offer. What need had God for two copper coins anyway? Surely they meant more to her than they would to Him. Somehow she must have had the grace to believe in the value of her small offering.
Maybe God, in a manner of speaking, did need what she had to offer. Perhaps her gesture consoled Jesus a short time before His passion and death. She had given everything she had to live on; soon, He would give His very life.
The story of the widow and her two copper coins reminds us that God's kingdom works on entirely different principles than the kingdom of this world. In the divine economy, the size of the gift is of no consequence; what matters is the size of the giver's heart. Listen to the life of Saint Paraskeva when you come to the church as a further reference. (Ana S. & Jean S. )