November 10 th, 2024 (22 Sunday Ordinary B)
Dear brothers and sisters,
today there are presented to us two figures, the one of the rich scribes and pharisees on one side and the poor widow on the other. Christ is observing by the treasury of the temple all the people putting in their donations. The pharisees put in a lot of money and the widow puts in the treasury two small coins. Christ looking at the widow praises her saying that she has put in more than everybody else because the other put from their surplus, but she put all she had to live with. We see that this poor widow fulfills all the Gospel. The widow in her poverty can give up all her life for God. This widow fulfills the “Shema” the first commandment of loving God above everything with one’s whole heart, mind and strength trusting in God alone. This widow shows to us what faith really does in our life. With faith we can abandon our life to God and enter his will. Our temptation is always like the scribes to be rich and full of ourselves and not lean on God. Many times, instead of looking for life in God alone we look like the pharisees for all worldly gratifications and the esteem of men. This is all vanity of vanities and will all disappear sooner or later. The only thing that remains is the love of God. Like this widow Christ loves us in our poverty and precariousness. When we do not have any human quality, but we only have our sins and we give them to Christ this is what he likes, to give all our poverty to him, so that he can come to marry us and provide for us. With Christ we are no longer widowed and living without a husband, but we are espoused and united to God.