1 Kgs 17:10-16; Ps 145 (146); Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44

The poor widow throws into the treasure of the temple «Everything she had, everything she had to live on». The Greek text is more radical: she throws in all her life. It is true: when you donate everything you have to live on, it is as if you hand over your own life. Jesus can only admire this gesture, recognizing a prophecy of what he is about to do in Jerusalem, when he will deliver his life for the poor, like this widow, to enrich them with his poverty offered for her and for all. This widow is probably poor because she too, like so many other women, is the victim of the hypocrisy of the scribes, who “devour the houses of widows.” Jesus, on the other hand, will let himself be devoured, consumed until the death of the cross, so that every man and woman can regain their dignity as sons and daughters of God. Jesus, affirms the letter to the Hebrews, will appear a second time to those who await his salvation. His life does not remain a prisoner of death. It rises again, to save all the poor of the Earth. As the flour and oil of the widow of Sarepta do not fail, because donated, so the life of Jesus, offered once and for all, remains fruitful in every time.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey