Week of November 8-14

Being thankful is not easy. If anything, being thankful seems a bit naive amidst pot-hole laden streets, rows and rows of blighted homes, rivers of water with the slightest rainfall, under-resourced public schools, and estranged family. Actually, being thankful proves to be a test of endurance, strength, sheer will-power, and stubbornness amidst the reality of Post-Katrina New Orleans.

Today’s Good News focuses on a single woman, a widow, in fact. (See Mark 12: 41-44) A woman who has grieved the loss of her companion and is forced to live a life sub-human without possessions or a right to anything. This woman has no worth. She may actually be a liability to her community.

Jesus shines the spotlight on her. He notices that she gives two coins… probably worth a penny… while others in the temple give large sums of money and are extremely generous. This widow gives from the little she has. 

She gives from her own need.

Pretty outrageous to comprehend! If you don’t have much, shouldn’t you keep the little you’ve got??? During this difficult economic time when the unemployment rate is high, shouldn’t we take care or ourselves first before giving to others?

Jesus encourages us to share.   We are led to one another so that we can help one another by offering ourselves and the little we have to one another. We were meant to live lives that shared God’s graces and blessings with others. This is our challenge… especially when it feels as though there won’t be enough for us and what we want and need.

Let us step out on faith this week to share from our need. We need a friend to listen to us… instead, become a friend and listen to another. We need someone to be compassionate and forgiving to us… instead, be compassionate and forgiving to another. We need our own time and space to just be… instead, create time and space and just be with another.

May whatever we do this week always give God thanks and glory.