Our Holy Fathers and Archbishops of Alexandria Athanasius (373) and Cyril (444).
1 Peter 4:12-5:5. Mark 12:38-44.
Read Mark 12:38-44
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
“I don’t do enough” – How often do we speak or think like this? It can be tempting to measure the quality of our Christian commitment in terms of how much we donate, how many hours we volunteer at our parishes, or how many parish activities we participate in.
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear the account of the widow’s mite. While Jesus and the disciples observe many people putting substantial amounts of money into the temple treasury, it is a poor widow whom Our Lord points out as an example to his followers, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.” (Mark 12:43-44)
Jesus’s lesson is clear: what we give to God or the Church is not a matter of quantity but of quality. As St. John Chrysostom notes, “One cannot buy heavenly things with money…There is no need for money, but for a Christian disposition. If you have this, you will even be able to buy heaven with two small copper coins. Without this disposition, one will not be able to do with ten thousand talents of gold the very thing that the two coins can do. (Homilies on Philippians, emphasis added)
What matters in the eyes of the Lord is not the amount of money (or anything else we give Him) but only the abundance of our generosity. We must never judge ourselves or others based on external observances – everyone is at a different place on the path of salvation, and everyone is at a different place in life. We often do not know our own hearts, let alone those of others. We need only keep in mind that when those of limited means respond faithfully to the full extent of their means, they express deeper faith than do those of greater means who respond only in part.
As we approach the period of the Triodion this weekend, Evagrius reminds us to start small (according to our means), “It is better to begin from one’s feeble state and end up strong, to progress from small things to larger, than to set your heart from the very first on the perfect way of life, then only to abandon it later—or keep to it solely out of habit, because of what others will think—in which case all this labour will be in vain (Admonition on Prayer)