Saturday in the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, June 6, 2020

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.” 

In yesterday’s Gospel reading we saw how the large crowd cheered for Jesus when he offered his explanation of Psalm 110 in opposition to that offered by the scribes.  They “heard this with delight” because his explanation seemed full to them: he told them that the psalm meant that God himself would come into the world as the Messiah, that Jesus proved himself to be the fulfillment of the prophecy because only he could explain it, and because it was Jesus, and not the scribes, who could explain it.  In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus alludes to behavior which caused the scribes to be disrespected , if not outright scorned: they paraded  their wealthy persons around in fancy garments, distinguishing themselves from the common people, and they charged money for prayers, even from the needy.  Jesus speaks harshly of them: “They will receive a very severe condemnation.”  We might wonder here what “a very severe condemnation” means.  In Matthew 25, 41, we are told that the Lord will say to all the wicked: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”  Surely, this is severe condemnation enough!  But these are the words that the Lord Jesus will shout at all the wicked together.  The “very severe condemnation” he speaks of here is the actual punishment to which they will be sentenced.  In hell, there are what the poet Dante called “circles”, or levels, in which various types of sinners suffered punishment.  On each level, the damned suffer punishment horrible beyond imagination, but the sufferings of the damned on each descending level grow more excruciating yet.  The scribes, Jesus is saying, will suffer deep in the abyss of hell for their sins.  

As St. Mark tells it, which is as St. Peter remembers it, Jesus next speaks of the virtue of a poor widow, in effect contrasting her with the scribes.  Mark says that Jesus “sat down opposite the treasury”, most likely on the pavement, with his disciples gathered around him, probably standing, for the teacher always sat while the students stood.  He observed the crowd putting their coins in the temple treasury, which was in an inner courtyard of the temple complex.  This was where Jesus did most of his teaching when he was in Jerusalem.  This was the Court of the Women, beyond which women were not allowed to go, and so both men and women would move about within it.  The treasury itself consisted of a warehouse.  If we want to picture the scene to ourselves, Jesus was sitting outside on the ground, perhaps against a wall of the courtyard, watching the people bringing their donations to the treasury.  Perhaps some of the folks made a show of it.  At any rate, Peter remembered that “many rich people put in large sums.”  And then Jesus looked at a bent figure of an old woman in tatters approaching the treasury, perhaps jostled by others there as someone of no importance.  She would not have attracted much attention from anyone, but Jesus noticed her.  He knew her through and through.  He watched as she “also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.”  When she turned from the treasury then, did she see her God looking with pleasure upon her?  He called his Apostles nearer to him so that they could hear him clearly.  He first told them that the woman was a widow.  Jesus continued: “Amen, I say to you, This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.”  Jesus doubtless paused here to let these words sink in.  Then he explained to them: “They have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”  Peter remembered the two small coins, most likely thin copper disks, worn smooth through the rubbing of many hands.

“They have all contributed from their surplus wealth.”  Jesus is saying that all the others had contributed from their excess wealth.  Certainly, not all who did so would have considered themselves rich, yet the Lord speaks of their excess wealth.  And he knows the wealth of each, for he had provided it to them.  That they do not contribute to the extent of this woman perturbs him, but he does not speak further of them.  Rather, he praises the woman.  She, he told his Apostles, gave “her whole livelihood”, all that she possessed: that with which she would otherwise have bought herself a bit of food.  This may well have been her whole day’s work of begging, or maybe two days’ worth of begging.  But she gave it and then walked away without any show, as though knowing that she done done nothing more than her duty to God.

We are not told that Jesus spoke of her eternal reward for her virtue, or that he rushed over to her and gave her money or food.  He remains on the floor of the courtyard.  Did an Apostle think to run after her?  We are not told that either.  Jesus does not praise the works of many people in the Gospels, but he praised hers.  We can think that at the end of her life she received a reward, with the words: “Give, and it shall be given to you: a good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your lap. For with the same measure that you shall measure out, it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6, 38).  May we hear these words as we open our eyes upon our Lord after we leave this world.

The Lord watched the people donating their money, paying their duty to him.  He offers this opportunity to us, to give of our wealth and abilities.  And he watches to see if we give with generous hearts, knowing that all that we have comes from him, or if we give only from our “excess wealth” — and not all of it, but only some of it.  He knows whether, in our hearts, we are “scribes” or poor and generous “widows”.

“