Excessive Generosity!

Monday, November 25, 2024

Rv 14:1-3; 4-5; Lk 21:1-4

Today’s Gospel teaches us to honor God through the example of the poor widow’s offering.

How do we honor God? 

We honor God by who we are. 

Through the widow’s offering, we are taught what honoring God really means. 

Though the Bible teaches that wealth is a blessing of God, the wealthy people who put their offerings into the temple treasury forget the truth and come to the temple only to honor themselves, not God. 

For the wealthy, the measure of their gifts is the measure of their alms. 

But Jesus proves them wrong by praising the widow’s offering and making her an example for all of us. 

The poor widow’s love of God is such that in the offering she makes, she gives of herself, her very life. 

The greatness of her sacrifice does not escape Jesus’ attention, who makes the poor widow our exemplar for loving God and carrying out our moral duties in the sincerity of will. 

Through her excessive generosity, the poor widow teaches us that ‘Our alms are judged not by the measure of our gifts but by the largeness of our hearts.’

Let us pray that we may honor God with the grandeur of our intentions and the nobility of our actions. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar