In today's Gospel Jesus emphasises the extent of a poor widow's gift: "her whole life" (Lk 21:4b).
A man of thought like Fr Claudel said: "What is life for if not to be given?".
Francis of Assisi, who shared his birth on his mother's side [Mona Pica, a refined woman of France] had made the total gift of himself to God and his brothers and sisters the evangelical meaning of his life.
He had embedded it in a verb very dear to him: 'give back' - give back to God what he had lavishly bestowed upon him.
And the 'poor in spirit' understand this better than anyone else.
In the Sources we read:
"To those who wanted to enter the Order, the Saint taught to repudiate the world first, offering to God first the external goods, then to make the interior gift of oneself.
He did not admit to the Order except those who had divested themselves of all possessions, holding nothing absolutely, both for the word of the holy Gospel and so that personal peculence would not be a scandal' (FF 667).
And again:
"In poverty they found great joy: they did not covet riches, indeed they despised every ephemeral good, coveted by the lovers of this world.
Above all they were against money, trampling it underfoot like the dust of the road: Francis had taught them that money was worth no more than donkey dung.
They were happy in the Lord, always having nothing within themselves or among them that could in any way upset them.
The more they were separated from the world, the more they held fast to God. They advanced in the way of the cross and in the paths of righteousness" (FF 1454).
They had well understood what the Gospel means when it proclaims the Blessedness of those who give all of themselves for Christ and in Christ.
"Truly I tell you, this widow, so poor, has given more than all" (Lk 21:3).
Monday, 34th wk. in O.T. (Lk 21:1-4)
