Brief synopsis of the readings: In the 1st book of Kings we find Elijah the prophet arriving in a city. There he meets a poor widow and asked her for some water and some bread. But she explains that she is so poor that she has only enough for her and her son; after they eat it they will die. Elijah then explains that if she feeds him she will have enough flour and oil, and that’s exactly what happened. In Mark’s Gospel Jesus warns his followers against the scribes who command seats of honor. They pray lengthy prayers to curry favor. Jesus then observed wealthy people placing large sums of money in the treasury while a poor widow put in a few small coins. He told those gathered that she was more generous as she was giving from her want while the others gave from their surplus.

Let’s be honest with ourselves: we all want the respect and admiration of those around us, and we’re convinced that if given a large sum of money the wealth wouldn’t change us.

The problem is that as disciples of Jesus we are called to change constantly. In fairness when we say this we really mean that the added wealth wouldn’t make us greedy or selfish. We envision ourselves as being just and kind and even more generous. Of course as we look over our history we see myriad examples where that goes wrong. Gollum in Lord of the Rings whose magic ring slowly destroys him. Professional athletes who sign immense contracts and later watch their marriages and other relationships implode.

This, of course, doesn’t mean we should always remain poor. I don’t know anyone who reads this first reading and wants to be the poor, starving woman, or the Gospel and wishes to be the poor widow. But if we’re not called to be the poor widow and we’re warned against being the wealthy givers, what do we do? I suggest these readings aren’t completely about wealth and poverty.

Clearly these two widows are the heroines here not because of their poverty but because of their decisions. The widow in our first reading gave Elijah that bread and the Gospel widow gave to the treasury. But what made their contributions so valuable?

It certainly wasn’t the amount they gave and I’m not sure it would have changed anything if the rich people had increased their giving. I know pastors everywhere are hoping their parishioners will read this and do exactly that. But they don’t necessarily want anyone to give so much that they impoverish themselves.

The widows recognized not so much what they had (or what they lacked) but what was needed. I don’t think we need to ignore what we have but to focus more attention on what’s needed. We hear stories of vulnerable people giving huge amounts of money to crooks and are left destitute and those stories rightly anger us. We don’t need to give until it hurts, we need to give until it changes us.

Each year on Ash Wednesday we have ashes placed on our forehead and are told to repent and follow the Gospel (or words to that effect). In other words we are called to change and to make that change a part of our lives. In my career I’ve met countless Christians and I have to confess that some of them bothered me. Some justified their prejudices through misinterpretations of Scripture and some doubted my salvation as a Catholic. But the ones that really bothered me were the ones who believed they had “graduated” from the need the need to change. They were content to spend the rest of their lives, well, coasting. They gave the usual amounts to the usual charities and convinced themselves that they had no need of further conversion.

I know I tend to use experiences from my ministry to illustrate points but in my defense working in parishes provides a virtually unlimited number of examples. Within a few minutes of reading this Gospel I recalled an event from my first parish as a priest. The parish was overwhelmingly poor and minority and in fairness we did some wonderful outreach to the neighborhood, not only to the parish.

While I was there the bishop came for a visit and met with the parish council. We told him with great pride the difference we were making: food bank, adult literacy, affordable housing, etc. The bishop was obviously pleased with what we told him but then asked: “Where to you expect to be in five years?” There was an immediate chill in the room and finally one person responded: “We expect to be doing exactly what we’re doing now.” I’m not sure how the bishop heard this but it made me sad because I realized that we were spending more energy on self congratulations than we were in seeing what else needed to be done. I didn’t last there very long.

Finally I want to send a heavenly shout out to my father in law; you may remember he died last May. He was a man of some wealth but he also saw that he lived in a world rife with needs. He never had a master plan or a mission statement: he simply saw a need and attended to it. His funeral packed the church as many of us spoke about his work with a free health clinic, affordable housing, scholarships to immigrants, and countless other acts of kindness. What impressed many of us was the fact that he never stopped looking for opportunities to help those in need. He knew that he wouldn’t cure all the world’s ills and he never did anything to bring attention or glory to himself. But most importantly he never stopped looking.

I think the poor widows looked on this with pride.