Daily Gospel Reflection – Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Bishop Robert Barron
June 10, 2023
Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Mk 12:38-44
In the course of his teaching Jesus said,
"Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes
and accept 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."
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus praises the poor widow’s generosity. We know that such generosity is patterned on God’s profligate, grace-filled giving.
Christianity teaches that all people are sinners and hence deserving of punishment but that God, out of sheer generosity, gives them what they don’t deserve. Think of one of the most popular lines in Christian poetry: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”
God pours out the whole of creation in an effervescent act of generosity, and then, even more surprisingly, he draws his human creatures, through Christ, into the intimacy of friendship with him. Christianity is a religion of grace that exults in this divine generosity. Think in this context of the parable of the workers hired at different times of the day or the story of the prodigal son.
But we know that the gift is not for us alone; rather, the generosity of God is meant to awaken a like generosity in us. If amazing grace has saved a wretch like me, I have to become a vehicle of grace to every lost soul around me.
COMMENTS