ACC ~ Luke 21 v1 - 4

ONE WHO GRIEVES THE POOR OFFERS TO GOD

CYPRIAN: You that are rich cannot do good works in the church, because your eyes, saturated with blackness and covered with the shadows of night, do not see the needy and the poor. Do you, rich and wealthy, think that you celebrate the Lord’s feast? You do not at all consider the offering. You come to the Lord’s feast without a sacrificial offering and take a part of the sacrifice that the poor offered. Look in the Gospel at the widow mindful of the heavenly commandments, doing good in the very middle of the pressures and hardships of poverty. She throws two mites that were her only possessions into the treasury. … She was a greatly blessed and glorious woman, who even before the judgment day merited to be praised by the voice of the Judge. Let the rich be ashamed of their sterility and their misfortunes. A poor widow is found with an offering. Although all things that are given are given to orphans and widows, she who should receive gives that we may know what punishment awaits the rich person. By this teaching, even the poor should do good. We should understand that these works are given to God and that whoever does these deserves well of God. Christ therefore calls these “gifts of God” and points out that the widow has placed two mites among the gifts of God, that it can be more apparent that he who pities the poor lends to God. WORKS AND ALMSGIVING 15. [1]

[1] FC 36:240-41*.

THE RICH GIVE ONLY A LITTLE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: This may perhaps irritate some among the rich. We will therefore address a few remarks to them. You delight, O rich person, in the abundance of your possessions. … You offer not so much in proportion to your means as merely that which when you give, you will never miss—out of great abundance, a little. The woman offered two farthings, but she possessed nothing more than what she offered. She had nothing left. With empty hand but a hand bountiful of the little she possessed, she went away from the treasury. Did she not therefore justly carry off the crown? Did not the decree of superiority come to her by a holy judgment? Did she not surpass your bountifulness, in regard at least of her readiness? COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 138. [1]

[1] CGSL 552**.

THE WIDOW REPRESENTS THE CHURCH ATTENDING THE POOR

AMBROSE: While [Jesus] stood in the temple, he also gave the verdict of which we are speaking. In the following verses, you have: “Jesus spoke these words in the treasury while teaching in the temple. And no one seized him.” [1] What is the treasury? It is the contribution of the faithful, the bank of the poor, and the refuge of the needy. Christ sat near this and, according to Luke, gave the opinion that the two mites of the widow were preferable to the gifts of the rich. God’s word preferred love joined with zeal and generosity rather than the lavish gifts of generosity.

Let us see what comparison he made when he gave such judgment there near the treasury, for with good reason he preferred the widow who contributed the two mites. That precious poverty of hers was rich in the mystery of faith. So are the two coins that the Samaritan of the Gospels left at the inn to care for the wounds of the man who had fallen among robbers. [2] Mystically representing the church, the widow thought it right to put into the sacred treasury the gift with which the wounds of the poor are healed and the hunger of wayfarers is satisfied. LETTERS TO LAYMEN 84. [3]

[1] Jn 8:20.

[2] See Lk 10:35.

[3] FC 26:469-70**.

MERCY AND COMPASSION NEVER WORTHLESS

LEO THE GREAT: Although the spite of some people does not grow gentle with any kindness, nevertheless the works of mercy are not fruitless, and kindness never loses what is offered to the ungrateful. May no one, dearly beloved, make themselves strangers to good works. Let no one claim that his poverty scarcely sufficed for himself and could not help another. What is offered from a little is great, and in the scale of divine justice, the quantity of gifts is not measured but the steadfastness of souls. The “widow” in the Gospel put two coins into the “treasury,” and this surpassed the gifts of all the rich. No mercy is worthless before God. No compassion is fruitless. He has given different resources to human beings, but he does not ask different affections. SERMON 20.3.1. [1]

[1] FC 93:74*.