Mark 12:38 - 44
My family has been very supportive of
a college in Virginia. We like the idea that it doesn’t take
federal money and therefore would have to comply with many rules that
seem counterproductive to us. We like that it is really and truly
Catholic, and teaches what the Church teaches. We’ve sent five of
our six kids there, and we’ve been involved since it only had about
a eighty students and four campus buildings to its present state
where there are 570 students and 13 buildings. It’s a great school
and part of a growing movement in this country. The college had a
very nice chapel on the campus. However, recently the decision was
made to raise money for a new, larger chapel for the growing student
body. In the annual fund drive, we were asked to decide between
contributing to the endowment fund, which helped defray student
tuition, or to the fund for building the chapel.
Today we hear about the widow who
deposits all she has in the treasury of the temple. Jesus remarks
that she has given more than any of these others, because she has
given from her need, while the others have given from their surplus.
Is Jesus telling us to dip more deeply into our pockets on Sunday?
Many times we interpret the story we’ve just heard in that way. The
widow gave all she had, and in the eyes of God that was more than all
those others had given. Sometimes in addition to reading this as an
appeal for generosity, we even read it with a sense of guilt – it’s
not likely that any of us will give up everything, will toss
everything into the collection basket in the hopes that God will
reward us. But I think that’s an important thing to recognize;
when Jesus told the rich young man to sell all he had and give to the
poor, he said, you will lay up treasures in heaven. Jesus says
nothing of the kind here. We hear no more about the widow than that
she gave everything she had.
But there is another way to look at
this story. First, a widow was not just someone whose husband had
died. They were “voiceless” in that society. No one spoke for
them. Some of the prophets called on the people to be concerned
about widows and orphans, but widows were not expected to speak up.
In fact when Jesus tells the story of the persistent widow who kept
bothering the judge, part of the shock of that story was that the
widow was speaking up for herself. It just wasn’t done. And
widows had no claim on what their husband left behind. That went to
the children, or back to the parents. Widows had a very hard time,
and in the early Christian community care of widows was a major
concern. In fact, that’s why the apostles created deacons – to
make sure the widows of the Gentiles andthe widows of the Jewish
Christians were treated equally.
The second point is that the people
dropping money in the treasury were not just being generous; they had
to tithe. And the custom was to drop the money into large urns, and
say out loud how much they had given and what they hoped it would be
used for. This was recorded, and to be in good standing as a Jew
meant that there was a record that you tithed.
The third point is that the teachers
of the law, the scribes and the pharisees, were proud of their status
in society. They did indeed wear clothing which set them apart from
the people. Among Jews if you were a tradesman and you met a teacher
of the law, you were the first to greet; the lesser deferred to the
greater. And in the synagogues, the learned ones sat in the front
facing the congregation – a sign of honor. And for a fee they
would offer elaborate prayers in Hebrew, the sacred language, and who
needed prayers more than a poor widow? That is how they devoured the
houses of widows.
The widow has to pay something;
everyone had to tithe. And she probably felt that it didn’t matter
whether she had two pennies or no pennies, and maybe she dropped the
two pennies into the treasury hoping that God would take care of her,
or maybe it was an act of defiance, or maybe of despair. She knew,
as well as Jesus knew, that her contribution would make literally no
difference to anyone.
And that may be why the Church puts
these two seemingly separate passages together. In the first case,
Jesus is condemning the teachers of the law not only because of their
pride and rich living, but because in order to maintain this life
style they got their money from the most vulnerable. And Jesus looks
with a broken heart at the widow, whose last pennies are going to
support the teachers of the law – and nothing is being done about
it.
We can read this story as a call to
greater generosity – heaven knows we need to be reminded of this
all the time. But we can also look at it as a call to take more
responsibility for the way our gifts are used. We know there are
charities where most of the money goes to pay the executive staff.
There is no law against that. And when we see someone like certain
megachurch leaders or television evangelists living a life that would
be the envy of a king, we can’t help but wonder how many houses of
widows they have devoured to support that life style.
And it’s true within our Church as
well. And it’s always a dilemma; should we build another elaborate
church or should we do something about the homeless people or the
hungry people or the drug addicts or the students who will be the
next generation of convinced, convicted Catholics? It’s a good
thing to support teachers of the law, and help support seminarians,
and honor God with beauty and wonderful monuments. The world needs
to see that we Christians put God first. But when we decide where
our charity is going, who has the greater claim? God, who doesn’t
need anything we could possibly give him? Or God’s children, made
in his image, whom he loves as much as he loves the Blessed Mother or
any of the saints? When the woman poured expensive perfume over
Jesus’ feet, and Judas objected, Jesus said, “The poor you will
always have with you, but the Son of Man you will not.” This same
Jesus who told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus – the rich
man who doesn’t even notice that there is a poor brother at his
feet. It is a wonderful thing to be able to give to charity. It is
sometimes very hard to decide where our gift will do the most good.
