The poor, old widow teaches us a lesson

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the weekday readings, for Monday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

+ Quality, integrity, and faithfulness!

Wonderful qualities, and equally wonderful where they often show themselves.

In this case today: four young men and a poor old widow.

They are from different times and in different biblical books, but they show forth some of the same qualities.

The four young men — with Daniel as the one standing out the most — in this book named after him, show themselves to be faithful and trusting always in God.

Blessed with much wisdom and filled with gifts, they find themselves chosen to be special servants to the king.

After three years of training, learning languages, strengthening their skills, and their physical bodies, all of which was to make them valued servants, they were brought into the king’s palace to give special service to him.

Thus, the story of the Book of Daniel begins — a story that properly brings us to the end of the liturgical year and prepped to look at “end-times” much like the Book of Revelation.

And these four young men will remain prominent figures in this story.

+ In our Gospel, Jesus, always an astute observer of life and human activity, noticed a simple scene unfolding before his eyes.

He noticed a poor old widow. Who would bother to single out such a seemingly insignificant person?

Who would watch her behavior, what she did, and perceive why she would do it and what it might mean?

And who would be able to compare with seemingly much more important persons and activities and see in this poor old widow something more significant?

As the richer crowd put large amounts of money, and perhaps in a very showy way precisely to attempt to impress others, this poor, old widow dropped two small coins into that same treasury.

No fanfare! No attention intended to be given!

But what did Jesus see?

Ah! Once again, Jesus saw faith and love, and total giving and surrender; and all of it done without any attention-seeking or look-at-me, or anything other than pure intentions.

But, as Jesus noted, she gave all that she had; in this act, Jesus noted that she gave more than all of the rest, proving once again that it is not what you give, but how and why you give it.

This widow, without even realizing it, taught the lesson that Jesus was always teaching and was teaching at that moment: just how we share in the kingdom of God and share that kingdom of God with others.

Yes! Quality, integrity, and faithfulness — the poor, old widow had it all.

Father Perry Dean Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com.