Extra

And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.’” (Luke 21:3-4).

Face of Christ (Unknown)

I heard a funny little story about a man who decided that he was not getting anything out of attending Holy Mass.  The story goes that the man began speaking to his parish priest and he told the priest that he had decided not to attend Holy Mass any longer because he saw no evidence of having any benefit from the Mass.  He said that during his lifetime he had attended almost two thousand Masses and nothing was changed in his life as a result.  The priest replied, that during his lifetime the man must have been fed at least thirty thousand meals by his wife, and yet there was also no evidence that those meals had made any difference.  And so, the moral of the story is that we get out of the Sacraments as much as e are willing to put in.

And I have been thinking about this story as I have been thinking about all the extra things that I put into my worship of God…

The story of the poor widow and the two copper coins sounds particularly lovely to me.  You see, she – unlike the man in the story and certainly unlike me – did not give the extra that she had.  She gave everything that she had.  And how much Christ loved that in her…

“He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.’” (Luke 21:1-4).And how easy it is for me to fill my extra hours with some prayers?  How easy it is for me to give that little bit extra effort when I know that the main effort that I have to give is not worth giving up because I reserve that for people and money and work and friends.  I do not reserve the best of myself for my God, I just hand over the extra bits that I can spare.

And what a lack of faith and generosity is that!  After all, it is only with such a lack of generosity that I am completely devoid of true love for my Blessed Lord.  After all, it would be like marrying my husband and telling him that I will commit to him only those parts of myself that I do not wish to give away to others first.  So, I will be faithful to him, but only in as far as it is convenient to me.  After all, I have a bit of extra to spare and I can spare it on him.

And when I think of it like that and think of how such an attitude might very well hurt my husband to the point of no return, I cannot help by shed a few tears for my poor poor God, who is left with all the extra and none of the rest of me…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.