Saturday in the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, June 20, 2023

Mark 12, 38-44

In the course of his teaching Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation.”  He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

St. Mark continues to present the teachings of Jesus in the Temple courtyard in the days before his Passion and Death.

“Beware of the scribes.”  The Greek word translated here as “beware” has the primary meanings of “to look” or “to be aware of”.  In this way the Lord is not warning the crowd of the scribes but pointing them out for who they were.  The scribes were a fairly unpopular group of people just as lawyers are today and have been through the ages.  The resentment against them came from the fact that they possessed skills necessary for the conduct of civic life, that they enriched themselves thereby, and that they looked down upon everyone else.  The Lord opposed them because of their greed and pride but also because they considered themselves experts on the Scriptures when they were not.  In fact, they badly misinterpreted the word of God but passed on their ideas as the true meaning of holy writ.  After giving common examples of their arrogance, the Lord declares, “They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers.”  That is, they meddle in wills and inheritances in ways that impoverish innocent and defenseless people, but excuse themselves from their wrongful actions by publicly reciting lengthy prayers, perhaps for those whom they have defrauded but which they hardly mean.  “They will receive a very severe condemnation.”  Those who worked for the harm of others shall themselves be severely punished.  We should note that the Lord qualifies “condemnation” with “severe” to teach that there are varying grades of punishment in hell.  The human inhabitants of hell are there because they committed sins of malice and did not repent from them.  But there is a difference between those who committed a great theft and those who commit serial murders, or between those who commit fornication and those who betray their countries.  Those in hell are punished in ways that befit their sins, the seriousness of their sins, and their number.  The Lord saying that the scribes will receive “a severe condemnation” shows something of the wrath of God towards the kinds of sins committed by the scribes.  Their long robes, long prayers, and smooth talk will not save them when they are judged.

Not long after Jesus condemns the scribes he “sat down opposite the treasury”.  The treasury was also known as the court of the women, as this was as far as women were permitted to go within the Temple complex.  It was an area out of doors just inside the main gate into the complex.  A box situated under the colonnades of the court served as the treasury itself.  Jesus sat of the ground “opposite” it and watched people putting their donations into it.  These were supposed to be used for the Temple’s upkeep.   “A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.”  The amounts tossed in the box by the rich would have attracted attention because of the jangling noise they made, but the thin, small coins put in by the widow would have made hardly any sound at all.  That she was a widow could be seen from her clothing, her age, and, most of all, from the the fact that she was alone.  No husband attended her.  She made her donation and then moved on.

“Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”  The Apostles must have been milling around, perhaps talking in small groups, so that the Lord has to call them together to see the widow.  He calls her “poor”, says that he lives in poverty, and that her donation consisted of her whole livelihood.  Just as Jesus had spoken of the scribes who “devoured the houses of widows”, she herself may have fallen victim to their machinations so that her present poverty came at the hands of one of these “rich people” who had contributed out of their surpluses.  Yet she had put in more than all the others in the eyes of God because her contribution came at a sacrifice — she might not eat that day — and so from her heart.  The wealthy contributions came only as a continuation of the show that involved long robes and prayers.

The Lord does not instantly enrich her or reimburse her.  He allows her to make her sacrifice so that she may might one day receive an eternal reward for it.  Her costly gift did not come as a sudden impulse but could only have come from a lifetime of devotion.  Her giving the dew coins with her heart proved a large deposit in the treasury in heaven.