Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke
At that time,
as Jesus taught in the Temple,
looking up, he saw the rich people
who put their offerings into the treasury.
He also saw a miserable widow
put two small coins in it.
Then he declared:
“Truly I say to you:
this poor widow put in more than all the others.
For all these, to make their offering,
took from their surplus
but she took on her poverty:
she put everything she had into living. »
Source : AELF
Meditation Monique Baujard
Jesus is in the Temple with his disciples. He sees rich people putting their offerings into the treasury. Then he sees a poor widow, who puts in two very small coins and Jesus says that she put in more than all the others. In Jesus’ words, there is no devaluation of the contribution of wealthy people. It is normal that having more means, they can give more. The difference that Jesus points out does not concern the amount of the contribution but the risk that the person takes. Rich people, he says, took from their surplus. They therefore risk nothing. The widow gave up on her poverty, “she put everything she had into living”. In other words, she is risking her life. By putting these two coins in the treasury, she has nothing left to live on. She entrusts herself entirely to God. She risks her life and, in a somewhat crazy act of trust, she abandons herself to God. No wonder then that Jesus shows her as an example to his disciples. This is the path that Jesus will accomplish shortly after. It is also the path that every disciple of Christ, yesterday as today, is called to take. And on this path, the poor often precede us. Because there is an astonishing closeness of the most deprived to Jesus. People who do not benefit from any material or relational security in life spontaneously recognize themselves in this man of sorrows who is Christ. He is, in a certain sense, one of them. They entrust their lives to Him, without hesitation. Their faith can spring forth with a force and an obviousness that surprises us. We all benefit from listening to their testimonies. Very far from conventional discourse, the poorest people intuitively capture the momentum of life and the hope that Christ brings.
Belgium
