The widow who puts two small coins into the temple
treasury can be for us an icon of faith and of love.
First, let us consider her faith. Pope Benedict XVI
taught that faith “appears as an interior attitude of one who
bases his life on God, on the Word, and trusts totally in
him”. “This widow, poor and vulnerable, gives away all
she has. This heroic generosity is only possible in one
who has great faith. Being a widow, she no longer
has her earthly husband with her, but she trusts in God as her
spouse. Being poor, she trusts in God to provide for
her. It is faith that allows us to pray, “Give us this
day our daily bread.”
Someone looking from the outside might see her gift and regard
it as worthless. What good are two small coins, worth
only a few cents? It is the widow’s faith that assures
her that God sees her offering, and it is precious in his
sight. Indeed, he says, “Amen, I say to you, this poor
widow put in more than all the other contributions to the
treasury.” St. Leo the Great said, “On the scales of
divine justice the quantity of gifts is not weighed, but the
weight of hearts. The widow deposited in the temple
treasury two small coins and by doing so surpassed the gifts
of all the rich. No gesture of goodness is meaningless
before God, no mercy is left barren.” The widow’s faith
is the source of her trust in the Lord’s care for her, and it
also assures her that her gift, through materially small is
most precious in God’s sight.
Next, let us consider this widow as an icon of love. Her
act of giving two coins is an act of almsgiving, an act of
charity. And for her, it is a gift given not from her
surplus wealth, “but she, from her poverty, has contributed
all she had, her whole livelihood,” Jesus points out.
She has given everything.
Bishop Robert Barron once said, “When you are linked in the
God who is never-ending giving, you can give and give and
never run out”. He explains that because God is love, we
have “God by imitating the generosity of God’s own love.
If you want your love to increase, give it away. If you
want your faith to increase, share it with someone. If
you want more joy, become a bearer of joy. It is not by
grasping at these things selfishly that we obtain them.
It is by giving them away.
The widow provides us a tremendous icon of love. What
little she has, she gives away. We often run up against
our limits – our patience is tested to its limit, our ability
to forgive weakens when we’ve been offended, our love seems to
run out. How can we give any more? And so, Our
Lord’s teachings about loving enemies or forgiving our
neighbors seem impossible. On the natural level, these
teachings expect too much from us. But nothing is
impossible for God.
And so, we return to Bishop Barron’s words: “When you are
linked to the God who is never-ending giving, you can give and
give and never run out”. If we are not linked to the God
who is never-ending giving, indeed, we cannot love in such a
total way. We could love our friends and those who do
good to us to a certain extent, but we could not go so far as
to love our enemies. But, if we are in union with God,
we can give of ourselves totally and generously, trusting that
God will fill us once more. We can love beyond what we
are naturally capable of because God’s own love is flowing
through us. In union with God, the martyr can even lay
down his life and pour out his blood completely, knowing that
he is not truly destroyed by his persecutor. Linked to
God, he knows the life of his soul will endure in union with
God, and even that his body will be restored by the same God.
To give everything requires faith, and it demonstrates
love. This is made possible only by union with the
infinite God in whom we trust, who is himself never-ending
giving and perfect love.