Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 24, 2025
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.”
The poor widow puts two copper coins in the temple court’s treasury—the smallest in circulation at the time. The clink of those coins in the bronze receptacles would have rang out that she offered much less than all the rest. But Christ praises the widow for offering everything. The widow, unlike the rich, had real skin in the game. Even falling short by the world’s standards took all that she had.
It’s easy enough to condemn the scribes and the wealthy, but I, too, have walked past homeless people begging and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t have anything,” when the real answer was that I only had a $20 bill, or something else that felt like “too much” to give away. I felt pity, but I walked away, and I probably spent that money on something fleeting, insubstantial. Pope Francis spoke of a “culture of indifference,” wherein “We have become used to the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none of my business!”
As the widow made her offering in the temple court, the sound of the coins in the treasury would have announced her poverty to everyone. It would also signal her need for her community, whose prayers and gifts would suggest devotion to God—whose preferential love for widows, strangers, and orphans echoes throughout the Scriptures—to show that same devotion in providing for her, as the law commands.
When I moved to South Bend last summer, I saw signs lining Twyckenham Road: “What do we owe each other?” The widow reminds us of the brief, brutally challenging answer: All that we have, even when it does not seem like enough—or it feels like too much. If we showed the same faith as the widow, we would never be satisfied with appearances or the thin comfort of pity, but offer our entire livelihoods for the life of the world.
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 honors 117 Christians who suffered and died for their faith in Vietnam since the seventeenth century—they stand as representatives for the hundreds of thousands who have suffered for their faith in Vietnam.
The canonized group includes 96 people who were from Vietnam and 21 missionaries from Spain and France; eight were bishops, 50 were priests, and nearly 60 were lay people.
St. Andrew Dung-Lac was a diocesan priest—he was named Dung An Tran when he was born in 1795 in North Vietnam. When he was 12, he moved to Hanoi with his family so his parents could find work. A catechist there offered him food and shelter and helped him receive an education. Dung was baptized, and chose the name Andrew—he became a catechist himself, teaching others the faith, and eventually was chosen to study for the priesthood. Andrew was ordained in 1823 and was known as an effective preacher and a model of holiness for those he served.
When the emperor began persecuting Christians, Andrew was imprisoned several times, but released when his congregation purchased his freedom. Eventually, though, Andrew was again arrested, tortured, and, finally, beheaded.
Dominican and Jesuit missionaries were the first to suffer martyrdom in Vietnam. These religious orders brought the faith to Vietnam in the seventeenth century and planted the seeds of Christianity that have grown ever since. Ever since, Christians have suffered under political regimes that suspected the faith as foreign influence.
The ruling powers forced many Christians to renounce their faith under threat of torture or execution—they were required to trample a crucifix to prove their allegiance to the state. Many hid, but the authorities rewarded those who turned in Christians, giving away large amounts of silver in return for reports of where the faithful were hiding. In return, Christians bribed those authorities to buy their safety. At one point, a third of the budget for a French missionary society was dedicated to buying safety for Catholics in Vietnam.
Christians were martyred in horrific ways in Vietnam, including St. Andrew Dung-Lac—their bodies were mutilated and some were tortured with the use of psychoactive drugs. Many were branded on the face, and whole towns known to hold Christians were wiped out.
An 1862 treaty with the French granted religious freedom to Catholics but did not stop all persecutions throughout the country. Most recently, in the last century, the Communist government tried to purge the nation of religion, and more than 600,000 Christians fled, leaving everything behind.
St. Andrew Dung-Lac and the Vietnamese Martyrs, who embraced suffering rather than renounce your faith—pray for us!
