Blog Idea 12-27-2024 A Thought on Christmas

 

Mark wrote about the widow’s offering in his Gospel used on the 32^nd Sunday in Ordinary [Cycle B] time; the opening prayer [for that Sunday], offers us this precious insight “… we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours.”

 

The widow has the freedom of heart to pursue what is God’s.

Whether or not the Temple treasury should have expected or accepted an offering from the widow is, from that perspective, beside the point. The widow gives wholeheartedly, and it is her freedom, as much or more than her generosity, that we are called to emulate.

Jesus calls us to pay attention to the widow’s offering. And in noticing it, He invites us to change our own measure of value, recognizing these two small coins as “more than all the rest.”

Where are we called to notice offerings—and those who make them in the freedom of heart that pursues what is God’s—that we might otherwise dismiss as small? How might we begin to recognize them as “more than all the rest”? [Adopted from Sam Sawyer, S.J.’s Reflection]

To live the Work of Christmas we need to adopt the widow’s offering, her freedom of heart to pursue God’s Will not our own.

May God’s Be Praised.