We are presented with two humble generous widows in our readings today. In our reading from the first book of Kings, a widow in desperate circumstances is saving her last portion of flour for her final meal. However, at the request of the prophet Elijah, she uses that flour to make bread to feed him, as she is asked by Elijah to place her trust in the Lord, that the Lord will provide. God blesses her with flour and oil in abundance in gratitude for her generosity to the prophet. In the Gospel, the scribes are wearing luxurious robes and sitting in the places of power and honor, using their power to take advantage of the poor and the vulnerable. In contrast to the arrogance of the scribes, a poor widow very generously puts her livelihood, two small coins, into the Temple's treasury. We see the trust, generosity, and humility of these poor widows. What they give is a sacrifice to them, but they give with joyful hearts. What do these readings tell us about the importance of giving and how we are called to give? How do these readings speak to us about stewardship today?
Many would consider the gift of the poor widow's two small coins as insignificant. Why would she give them as a gift? If it didn't matter to the treasury, wouldn't she be better off keeping that money for herself for her own needs? If she had let the rich citizens make all the contributions themselves, she could have kept her coins and invested them in her future. Perhaps the widow realized in her heart that by not keeping her coins to herself and instead giving them to the Temple, she was worshipping God and giving him glory.
There is a sharp contrast between the poor widow and the scribes and the Pharisees. In ancient Jewish society, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger were the poorest and most marginalized. The orphan had no family and no means of support. The stranger was an outcast in a strange land, considered unclean under Jewish law. In ancient Israel, where husbands could often die young of disease or in war, widows could be relatively young themselves. In a world of arranged marriages, most often, the widow would not be chosen again as a bride. With her husband dead, she was of no interest to her husband’s family or her own family. If she had no children, she was uncared for and alone. Yet, this poor widow’s simple piety is very different from the arrogance and social ambitions of the scribes. What they gave probably did not affect their financial situation or the standard of living at all.
There can be different motivations behind what we give, whether what we give is big or small, whether we are rich or poor. For example, we could resent the act of giving, not wanting to part with what we give. We can give out of shame, feeling that we need to keep up appearances, to give so that others won't look down on us. We can give in a calculated way, giving only because we think we will receive something back in return. Or we can give because we feel like it is our obligation to do so. But we can also give out of thanksgiving, gratitude, and our blessings. Why else would the widow give her last coins, her whole livelihood, to the Temple treasury, if it wasn't out of thanksgiving? For us, what is the motivation for what and how we give in our lives? Do we give mostly out of shame, or do we do so out of thanksgiving?
We each have our own perspective and our own reality. When I went to Ecuador as a missionary, I had already served for several years as a missionary with just a small stipend, so I was entering that assignment with not a lot of financial resources. Not only did I have no salary, but to cover my own living expenses and my work projects, I had to solicit grants or donations. That was not easy. I made a big effort in applying for grants and publicizing my missionary work. Any money I could get my hands on went into my projects, which included two schools where I served as administrator. I can identify with the small coins of the widow in the Gospel today, because every little bit and every little sacrifice helped.
The word generosity is derived from a Latin word that denotes a person of noble birth. One interpretation would see generosity as bestowing our own riches and treasures upon another person. But should we really see these riches as our own? From the perspective of stewardship, we should see everything we have as rightfully belonging to God: our time, our riches, our talents, our gifts, all that we have no matter how we got those things. In all that we have, how are we stewards of all those things on God’s behalf? That is a question each one of us can answer for ourselves as we are called to us our gifts and treasures to the glory of God.
