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32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B - 11/11/2018 - Gospel: Mk 12: 41-44
Generosity
When we talk about generosity we often think about feeding the poor and helping the needy and being kind to each other. It is a thing most of us would think of when we talk about generosity. Generosity is much more than just giving bread and butter. There are various of ways we can give because the needs are enormous and in different fields. We can give time. Some need someone to listen to and make they feel welcome; others need companions to fill their loneliness and emptiness; others again need justice and their voice to be heard; others again need words of encouragement and support to carry out their dreams; others again need words of encouragement to combat their addiction. The readings mentioned the unnamed widow, the poorest in her society, a vulnerable, as an example to show how rich she was in the eyes of God. She was spiritual rich in contrast to the wealthy and the powerful who only thought of self serving and desired for honour and recognition from their own people. Knowledge helps one to accumulate material wealth but that is not the end; the end goal is how to put it in good use to make you spiritual rich by generously sharing what you have got to others. Richness in God's kingdom doesn't count on how much you give but rather how much love you put in giving and the attitude of doing it. The poor widow was praised for she had  little and yet she was able to share the little resources she had; while others shared much more but it was sharing the excess of their wealth. Generosity comes from the heart of a person and that is the way of the poor widow in the Gospel. The poor widow in today's first reading (King 17,10-16) saw the need of the poor man, on her way of collecting wood to cook her last meal, as much as of her own need of food. The widow believed that this was the last meal she and her children would  have before dying. Sharing it with the poor man would not make much difference since having a bit more or a bit less was the same since they would soon die of hunger. The stranger demanding her to cook him a meal first before cooking for her own children was a bit much. She knew that, in ancient Israel, the poor of her society as her, was not required to share what little they have with others but she somehow did so because deep in her heart she had compassion for the needy. She believed in the goodness of sharing and more importantly she believed that what she had all belonged to God.  Having a meal on his own also indicated that he was not a member of her family and yet she would feed him in times of hardship.  Feeding the man the woman thought that it was her last act of hospitality before dying. She didn't know that God showed generosity to her and to each one of us in different ways. She recognize it after she had done good deed for the stranger.

The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as the Lord had foretold through Elijah v.16.

The woman in the book of Kings acted in the same manner as the poor woman who offered two coins at the Temple, because she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on v.44.

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