Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 21, 2022
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.”
When do we feel most alive, most connected to others?
This is a question I reflect upon often. In my life, it has been when I entered into a relationship with someone struggling. This relationship pulls me out of my comfortable existence and forces me to reprioritize what is important. It also forces me to give from my being—not from excess.
The Gospel reading today is often interpreted financially, and as someone who works in the field of philanthropy, this was my initial reading. After reflecting on Luke’s words, it strikes me more profoundly.
Shortly after graduating from Notre Dame, I spent three years working in an impoverished community in the Dominican Republic near the Haitian border. I was surrounded daily by people suffering in acute ways. Although this was one of the most challenging things I have ever undertaken, it was also one of the most life-giving.
Since returning from the Dominican Republic, I have been challenged by our cultural value of building security. This security leads to comfortable bubbles of isolation—it insulates us from connecting with others. Many of us end up content but not truly happy.
The widow in today’s Gospel gave from her being—not from her excess. She shared from her security—not because she wanted to, but because she had to.
When I look around me today, I see many “widows.” They include the devoted parent struggling to care for their autistic child, a faithful spouse dutifully tending to their lifelong partner with Alzheimer’s, a distraught teen trying to comfort their best friend in addiction, or an adult child caring for their parent with terminal cancer.
What is so radical to me about today’s Gospel is that the challenge is not about how much to give but about a new way of living.
Prayer
Spirit of Love, inspire us to give all we are and all we have to the building of your kingdom. Help us to realize that any abundance we have is not for our own good, but for the good of others. May we learn to enter into the spirit of the widow who gave her all so that others might benefit, even in her poverty. Divest us of anything that might slow us in the building of those places where you live and reign. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Today, the Church celebrates Mary's presentation in the Temple. Although there are no scriptural or historical accounts of this particular event, it is a feast that has profound theological symbolism and has been important for Christians since the earliest days of Christianity.
An early written account that contains many key stories of Mary's childhood come from a piece of early Christian writing called the Protoevangelium of James, also called The Gospel of James or The Infancy Gospel of James. In the Protoevangelium, the author draws on many Old Testament tropes to connect Mary's birth and childhood with the holy men and women of Israel's sacred heritage. Anne and Joachim, Mary's parents are devout Jews who are childless. Joachim is shunned for his infertility and Anne weeps, lamenting her barrenness, which has caused them deep shame. An angel appears to her and tells her that she will conceive a child. Anne vows in that very moment to dedicate her child, male or female, to the Lord in the Temple. Soon after, Joachim and Anne conceive. They are overjoyed, and, eventually, Anne bears a girl who they name Mary. Soon after Mary's birth, Anne takes Mary to the Temple to present her to the Lord and dedicate her daughter’s life to God.
The feast is important because not only does it connect Mary's parents Joachim and Anne to righteous figures from Scripture, like Abraham and Sarah, it also draws a close parallel between Mary’s life and Jesus', as the Church celebrates the feast of Jesus’ own Presentation in the Temple (Lk 2:22-38), on February 2nd. Because Mary is the first and greatest disciple, a model of faith, her life is depicted as an intimate imitation of Christ's.
Furthermore, the feast draws the close connection between Mary and the Temple. The Temple was believed by the Jewish people to be the place where God's glory, the Shekinah, dwelled on earth. Mary, who will house God-made-flesh in her body, is the new Temple, the new Ark of the Covenant, the location of God's presence on earth for nine months in her body and throughout her whole life as she walked in unwavering faithfulness with God. For, in the words of St. Augustine, "it was for [Mary] a greater thing to have been Christ's disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master."
Indeed, from the beginning of her life, through the grace of her Immaculate Conception, Mary cooperated fully with God's grace. This cooperation with God came to fruition in her acceptance of Gabriel's message at the Annunciation, leading to God's incarnation in the world. We, like Mary, are called to live as God’s holy temples, to bear Christ into the world as Mary did.
Mary’s presentation in the Temple is represented in a stained glass window in the Basilica of Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus. In the window, shown in today's featured image, Anne and Joachim present her to the temple priest.
Mary, whose dedication to God allowed her to become God’s living temple—pray for us!