GOSPEL POWER - NOVEMBER 23, 2020 - 34TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Lk 21:1-4 

 Jesus looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury;  he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.  He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them;  for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.” T he Gospel is good news indeed, for it is about the divine reversal of the world’s values that have become, for many of us, the norm of outstanding and praiseworthy behavior. By questioning those values and turning them upside down, Jesus allows us to glimpse what truly matters in the Kingdom of God. In today’s episode, Jesus lets us see that, in giving, it is not the amount of the contribution that ultimately matters, but the state of the giver’s heart. When a poor and needy person voluntarily gives, it implies willingness to part with what is even necessary for survival and to endure deprivation for the sake of sharing. This is genuine generosity, regardless of the amount given. Jesus praises the poor widow in the hearing of his disciples, because no one in the Jewish society of their time nor even in our post-modern world today will care to notice, much less publicize such an excellent deed.

 Lord Jesus, give us the right frame of mind and disposition of the heart to assimilate the upside down values of the Kingdom. Amen.