Friends,
today’s Gospel tells of the poor widow who gave her last penny to the
Temple treasury. Her behavior makes us consider our possessiveness. What
do we tell ourselves all the time? That we’re not happy because we
don’t have all the things that we should have or that we want to have.
What follows from this is that life becomes a
constant quest to get, to acquire, to attain possessions.
Do
you remember the parable about the foolish rich man? When his barns
were filled with all his possessions, he decided to tear them down and
build bigger ones. Why is he a fool? Because (and I want you to repeat
this to yourself as I say it) you have everything you need right now to
be happy.
What
makes you happy is always right in front of you because what
makes you happy is love. Love is willing the good of the other, opening
yourself to the world around you. Love is not a feeling. It’s an act of
the will. It is the great act of dispossession.
I, John, looked and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion,
and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand
who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.
I heard a sound from heaven
like the sound of rushing water or a loud peal of thunder.
The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.
They were singing what seemed to be a new hymn before the throne,
before the four living creatures and the elders.
No one could learn this hymn except the hundred and forty-four thousand
who had been ransomed from the earth.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
They have been ransomed as the first fruits
of the human race for God and the Lamb.
On their lips no deceit has been found; they are unblemished.
When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people
putting their offerings into the treasury
and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.
He said, "I tell you truly,
this poor widow put in more than all the rest;
for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood."
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