Fr Paul Gooley reads from Luke’s Gospel (21: 1-4) in which Jesus, when visiting the temple, notices a poor widow giving two small coins, all she had, as her offering.

Fr Paul says in today’s gospel, Jesus praises a poor widow who knows how to share more than a rich people do. At the very beginning of the church the great number of people in Christian communities were poor people. After a short time, those with more also entered into these communities and this caused a number of problems and tensions started to rise.

This is why the teaching of this act of the widow was very meaningful both for the people in Jesus’ time and for us today.

Money was given to the temple for the continuation of the worship, to support the clergy and for the upkeep of the building. It was also used to help the poor. So, to overcome the tensions that existed, Jesus was teaching that the practice of sharing and helping one another was something that he wanted the Christian community to actually live out. That it was more important that just giving for the sake of giving. As Jesus teaches, the woman shares everything she has to help others.

With this teaching in mind, Fr Paul invites us to reflect on ‘How can I be like the woman in the Gospel in our world today, sharing and helping people actively?’