Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark. Glory to you.
In the course of his teaching, Jesus said to the crowds, beware of the scribes who like to go around in long robes and accepting greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues and places of honor at banquets.
They devour the houses of widows and as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers.
They will receive a very severe condemnation.
He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.
Many rich people put in large sums.
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.
Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, amen, I say to you. This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury, for they have all contributed from their surplus wealth. But she, from her poverty has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
If you remember a lot of those old crime TV dramas, they would oftentimes have a disclaimer at first and that disclaimer would say, the events you are about to see are true. Only the names were changed to protect the innocent.
So that's what I'm going to do now with a true story.
But it was at another parish on another day, and I had an individual who was representing a group and wanted to talk about making a charitable donation to the parish.
Now, it was perfect timing because the ladies that had done our funeral luncheons there had asked me if we could get a big stand up freezer. It would really come in handy for some of the things that they did.
And then this individual showed up and I said, I got the perfect thing. The ladies are asking for a freezer for funeral lunches and then the overflow can be used for our food pantry. Perfect.
Well, a couple weeks later, the freezer arrived. We found a place in the pantry, in the kitchen, got it plugged in, got it working, and it was great.
Two weeks later I get a letter in the mail.
And it was a pretty stern letter and it was written by the individual who made the donation.
How highly disappointed they were in me because I didn't place the freezer in the middle of the social hall where people could see it.
Well, that was the reaction I had. So I took it down to my staff because sometimes I react to things differently than the rest of the world. And I read it to them and they all laughed.
So I thought, okay, I'm going to sit on it for a day, then I'm going to write a response.
So I wrote a response back reiterating our gratitude for the donation.
And then I followed it up with, but please permit me this one question.
I'm assuming you have a freezer in your house. Is it in your living room?
A couple days later, the phone rang and it was this individual saying how sorry he was on being ridiculous. He hadn't thought it through very well.
Well, the definition of integrity that I like the best is doing the right thing at the right time, whether or not anybody sees it.
And that's what Jesus is kind of getting at here. It's not about the recognition of another person. It's not about the accolades we receive. It's not about being held up in the newspaper or on television for being such a good person.
It's about doing what is right and good simply because that's what we're supposed to do.
It's recognizing that we are simply stewards of absolutely everything we have, including our own lives, and that the only gift God asks for in return is that we're willing to share from what we've been given.
That isn't always the easiest thing to do, but it is the thing that a real disciple does.
And Jesus points out the widow in the story to show that, yeah, she didn't have anything left to give. She was on her very last nickel, but she still knew it was the right thing to do, so she did it.
Well, he was talking there in particular about actual monetary poverty. But we also know there's other kinds of poverty out there. There's poverty that comes from being sick, not having our health.
We also know people who are sick but still continue to give of their time and their love to other people in the midst of their illness.
Sometimes our poverty is in lack of free time. We're so busy with our jobs and our families that we don't have time left. And we all know people who are short of time but still give of their time to other people.
And sometimes our poverty is loneliness. We're all alone and nobody's there to be with us, to support us. And we all know people that are lonely, that still give of their presence to other people to make them feel better and to know that they're loved.
All of those things are examples of true discipleship, even in the midst of poverty.
And each one of us is apt to give without counting the cost, but more importantly, without recognition.
