Jesus warns against the scribes who are concerned with outward appearances.
He observes the widow’s small offering cast into the common treasury, prompting a profound reflection.
In the Franciscan Sources we find various episodes concerning the Poverello that illustrate the lifeblood of his journey.
Francis collaborated in God’s creative work by becoming a source of sustenance for the poor and infirm, and he urged his friars to do the same.
The Sources recount:
“One day a beggar came to the church of Santa Maria della Porziuncola, near where the friars lived, and asked for alms.
There was kept a cloak there, which had belonged to one of them when he was still in the world.
Francis told him to give it to the poor man, and he immediately and joyfully gave it to him.
And straight away, as a reward for the faith and goodness shown in that gesture, it seemed to that brother that the alms had ascended to heaven: and he felt filled with unspeakable joy.
[…] They were happy in the Lord, always, having nothing within themselves or amongst themselves that could in any way sadden them” (FF 1451; 1454).
Clare of Assisi herself, in a wonderful letter to one of her spiritual daughters (Agnes of Bohemia), wrote:
«O blessed Poverty! To those who love and embrace you, you procure eternal riches.
O Holy Poverty! To those who possess and desire you, God promises the Kingdom of Heaven, and unfailingly offers eternal Glory and a blessed life.
O Pious Poverty! The Lord Jesus Christ deigned to embrace you in preference to all other things» (FF 2864).
«Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others» (Mk 12:43)
Saturday, 9th wk in Ordinary Time (Mk 12:38–44)







