By Msgr. Robert Batule.

In the public ministry of Jesus, there is an incident involving a poor widow who puts two small coins into the treasury. Upon seeing this, the Lord drew the attention of the disciples to this offering. He let them know that the poor widow contributed more than anyone else did. Jesus based his judgment on the fact that the others contributed out of their surplus wealth; the poor widow, on the other hand, gave all she had, her whole livelihood. (cf. Mark 12:41-44)

When this scripture passage shows up in the Church's liturgy, it is at the end of the period we refer to as Ordinary Time. More specifically, it comes late in Ordinary Time when we are reflecting on last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The wisdom of the liturgical placement is not in question. I would only say the eschatological lesson is a good beginning to understand the proclamation of the Gospel.

Many of us recall from our childhood, our elementary school years in particular, when we were given "mite boxes" as a way of keeping the Church's penitential discipline before Easter. It's too bad that mite boxes are not much used anymore. They were a great way of introducing children to the asceticism of almsgiving, along with a lifelong concern for the poor and those on the margins of society.

The poor widow and mite boxes are reminders that religious faith exacts a personal cost. And the financial one is usually not the most burdensome. Far more threatening is the prospect of having to let go of certain tactics we employ mentally and emotionally to negate what is most essential to religious faith: conversion.

On this point, some remarks by Fr. Clodovis Boff during this past summer are quite telling. Fr. Boff was once among the most well-known advocates of liberation theology in Latin America. But he began having misgivings about liberation theology years ago. Since then, his misgivings have only intensified.

In an open letter to the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, he criticized "the same old story: social issues, social issues, and social issues." This has been going on, he wrote, "for more than fifty years." Fr. Boff lamented that the "good news about God, Christ and his Spirit [has not been preached]."

The same, he indicated, goes for "grace and salvation, conversion of the heart, prayer, adoration, and devotion to Mary the Mother of God." These have been sidestepped, too.

There is always the temptation to reductionism - not just in Latin America but anywhere the Gospel is proclaimed. Why is that? Because with the Gospel, we are always contending with mystery. In faith, mystery is what we behold. "Handling" mystery only domesticates the Gospel. With handling instead of beholding, we mistakenly think faith is for problem-solving. To behold the Gospel is to entrust ourselves to God, not counting the cost but only making ourselves a gift for the Kingdom.

The beauty of holiness is that saints come from every corner of the earth and emerge from every epoch of history. The circumstances are thus richly variable. What is constant, though, is the personal desire to serve the Lord in the Kingdom which he inaugurated, but is not yet fully realized. The Kingdom is manifested only when God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are preached, and when grace, salvation, conversion, prayer, adoration, and Marian piety are preached too. That is Fr. Boff's understanding of what the Gospel is; it is the Church's too.

The religious Left, we have to say, is like the political Left in always searching for and trying to calibrate progress vis-à-vis the things in our midst right now. The Church, however, was not established by Christ to lower unemployment rates or increase home ownership - laudable as these developments are for all the nations of the world. The Church has sought, in every time and place throughout history, to tend to the poor, the dispossessed, and the downtrodden.

Jesus did the very same in his ministry. Indeed, the judgment scene w...