Homily for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, November 7, 2021. Gospel of St. Mark 12:38-41. Theme: The Widow’s Mite
The teaching Jesus gives us about the Widow's Mite, as this story is traditionally called, can be an important lesson for us when it comes to making the gift of ourselves and our money at the Offertory of the Mass. In case you need a short refresher on its meaning, the Offertory of the Mass is, as its name implies, when we offer God the gifts of bread and wine so that they can become for us the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also called the Presentation of the Gifts and includes the giving of our donations for Church ministries.
And as you well know, the Offertory is when we take up the collection and this isn’t just for convenience sake! It’s intentional that the collection happens at this moment of the Mass because our gift of money is meant to represent the gift of ourselves. This is because it is the fruit of the labor of our hands and our heads, it’s the sustenance of our material lives and as such it represents who we are. Ideally, the amount we donate is meant to reflect the degree of gratitude which we have in our hearts for having been blessed with these talents. It is also a thanksgiving for the employment we have which enables us to live a decent life and provides for the needs of our poorer neighbors.
I think that our modern day grasp of what the Offertory means has been tainted by the fact that we give money rather than the actual goods we have labored to produce. For most of church history, people gave actual gifts of food, drink, and clothing, and sometimes money, though that was rare back then. This is still the case in many Masses celebrated in Third-World nations where most of the people don’t have money to give. So they give the actual fruit of their handiwork: hunted game, woven blankets, handmade utensils, cooked dinners. These gifts help both the local clergy to live and provide needed sustenance for the poor of their villages and towns. It is a more visible connection and direct link between the gifts given and the Giver who is praised in the giving.
With the importance and meaning of the Offertory in mind, let's see how the poor widow of the Gospel can help us give our gifts at Mass with a good spirit. It seems to me that she teaches us two important things.
First, she reminds us to avoid making a show of what we give. She simply dropped two little coins into the treasury box without fanfare. She stands in stark contrast to the Jewish leaders whom Jesus criticized in the beginning of the story as examples of giving or doing religious things for the sake of being noticed, thanked and praised. Now, most of us don’t make a show of what we put into the basket, but we still need to be careful that we aren’t praising ourselves in our minds, thinking of how good and generous we are, or looking forward to seeing our names on a “generous donors” list.
Second, the poor widow teaches us that truly generous giving means donating from our wants and not simply from our surplus. Jesus praised her contribution as having much more significance than the large sums of the wealthy because she herself was needy. She gave more, we would say, “than she could afford”. Now, it is good and ordinary to give from our surplus, and it is what most of us probably do. That’s not being contested or condemned here by Jesus. What he is saying is that it is better, it is holy and praiseworthy, to give out of one’s need because that is how love works. As Mother St. Teresa of Calcutta used to say, “real love hurts.”
This was true about Jesus Crucified who loved us and so gave the total gift of himself for us on the cross. And it must be true about us as Christians, people marked by the cross, as well. Sacrificial love should be the motivation of our giving. And it should be done for the love of God which is shown in the love we have for our neighbor, a love that just might hurt. With this in mind, the Offertory of the Mass should be something very meaningful to us. When the deacon is preparing the altar with the Gifts and the priest is blessing God for them, we should prayerfully and mindfully place the gift of ourselves, of every aspect of our lives, on that paten along with the bread and in that chalice along with the wine, to be offered along with Christ, to the glory of God the Father and for the relief of our neighbor’s needs
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