Many years ago when I was in another parish, in the midst of a frigid winter, the Pine street Inn put out a plea for long underwear for their homeless clients. We put a notice in our bulletin and urged everyone that could to contribute. Within a week, we had two rooms in the rectory literally filled, from floor to ceiling, with new packaged long underwear. It was one of the first times I was dumbstruck by the generosity and compassion of human nature. I remember thinking on the one hand that everyone knows how it feels to be cold; but on the other hand it was a very concrete way to do something most of us want to do but don’t always know what to do.
And I suspect that was how Jesus felt in today’s gospel reading as He sat in the Temple area opposite the treasury box. First of all, how many people would have noticed this poor widow, poor because she had no visible means of support, this widow gives all she had in support of her faith. Lots of people contributed that day but it was the widow’s meager donation that caught His eye. Jesus didn’t have money to give her to help her in her financial plight, but what he did was immortalize her in his teaching for all of us to learn compassion and generosity of heart.
Our first reading today from the Book of Kings is a very similar story. Elijah visits a widow and her son who are about to prepare their very last meal…they have only enough flour and oil for a little bread. Elijah asks to share the meal. The widow responds generously by sharing the little she has and is rewarded out of God’s compassion by providing her with flour and oil for a whole year.
There are many things we can learn from these stories. One is that what we do in the name of God does not go unnoticed by Him. St. Michael’s parish reaches out to so many who are in need. Whether it be monthly donations to the food pantry; or providing meals at Our Father’s Table; bringing food baskets to the needy during the holidays; or the wonderful ministry our St. Vincent DePaul Society provides all year long and the financial support all you our parishioners contribute in that yearly collection and your contributions in the poor boxes.
God notices your response. Whether it is food or long underwear, God too is dumbstruck by your compassion and generosity and these ways that you help to spread His kingdom here on earth.