August 11, 2005
Change
Jesus’ story of the widow’s two copper coins keeps us mindful that the gospel’s Good News is not only about change, but also about small change (Mk 12.38-44).
In this story, Jesus warned about the scribes, not only because they were guilty of bad doctrine and wrong-footed politics, but because they were mean, and they were small. They trivialized their positions of respect in exchange for small favors. At a time when people needed large and noble spirits, they were petty. It remains a not uncommon phenomenon in today’s high places both in church and state.
Widows in Jesus’ time were south of anybody’s poverty line. Widows in our time, so we’re told, own a major portion of the country’s wealth. But as impressive is this coin story, it’s not about widows, it’s about giving.
Money is the eighth sacrament. It’s the lever that turns our society. That churchers are using it one more time in an attempt to control and protest is only an embarrassing symbol of how disoriented can be our stewardship and how illiterate can be our telling of the Good News.
Jesus’ widow hadn’t the foggiest whether she dropped her coins in the fountain of healing and service or down the drain of ecclesiastical arrogance and greed. But Jesus knew.