Mk 12:38-44 Quality and Quantity

Mk 12:38-44  Quality and Quantity

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Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.  Many rich people put in large sums.  A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.  Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.  For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

This story always tugs at our heart.  It doesn’t always open our purse strings.

In the twenty years that I have been a religious, I have known a lot of people like this poor widow.  They give because they love God above all things, including themselves.  Yes, those who love God are capable of making tremendous sacrifices for God and for their neighbor.  Are you one of them too? 

Just a few days ago, I asked a male parishioner, a father of six children, to accompany me on a long road trip.  He reluctantly agreed.  I could understand why.  I was inviting him on a two hour trip to celebrate a one hour Mass.  I told him that I would drive.  When He saw how tired I was, he insisted he drive back.  He did, and not long after that, a police car pulled him over for going five miles above the speed limit.  I couldn’t believe it.  I felt so bad!  But the worst part is he didn’t get a ticket for speeding.  Instead, he got a ticket because my car’s inspection had expired.  When I protested to the officer that the car belonged to me, he told us to work it out between the two of us.

My friend didn’t say a word to me.  I couldn’t believe it.  This kind man, who I had invited to accompany me, and who had demanded to drive back home so that I could relax, got a ticket because I did not update my car’s inspection!  To make up for it, I invited him to dinner.  I took him to Wendy’s.

The next day, he insisted on taking my car to get it inspected.  I gave him the keys and told him to leave them at the front desk of the office.  Again, I insisted that I pay.  He said nothing.  About an hour later, I saw him dropping off the keys at the front desk.  Again, I insisted that I at least pay for part of the ticket.  He refused.  As I was accompanying him to his car, that’s when I saw my car.  I couldn’t believe my eyes!  Not only did he get my car inspected, he also got the wipers replaced, the oil changed, the car washed (the inside as well as the outside), and he filled the gas tank.

My friend didn’t help me because he is wealthy.  He helped me because he is a good man.

Love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself.  Being poor does not make you holy.  Being rich does not make you unholy.  The truth is:  being good makes you holy.   

Being good is not the same as feeling good.  The difference is significant:  being good will always lead to feeling good; whereas, feeling good will not always lead to being good. 

There are a lot of people who think they can love their neighbor without necessarily loving God.  To put it bluntly, that is pure nonsense.  Those who insist on feeling good always end up killing their neighbors.  That’s right.  They give the worst possible advice to their neighbors.  They are the ones who drive their neighbor to the abortion clinic!  They are the ones who encourage others to vote for the legalization of marijuana.  They insist that feeling good is more important than being good, and they’ll do whatever it takes to feel good about it.

All I know is that people who insist on feeling good tend to leave dead bodies wherever they go. People who are good…never do. 

Hurricanes and families.  We have a tendency to associate wealth with happiness; small families with brighter futures.  Again, pure nonsense!

Today, I spoke to a very successful pediatrician who told me that in the thirty years he has practiced medicine, he has never met a mom or a dad who wished they had had fewer children.  On the contrary, he has met a lot of moms and dads that wished they had had more kids.  It’s easy to think that the fewer kids we have the more options we have for them.  Over the past sixty years, family planning businesses have tried to convince parents that the fewer kids they have, the brighter their futures will be.  But again, based on my experience, smaller families tend to produce spoiled-rotten-stinky-little brats!  Actually, they tend to be very sad children.  It’s a mystery:  these kids have more than they need and are rarely ever happy. 

The data is clear:  Smaller families do not produce higher quality kids.  Larger families do not produce low quality kids.  Holy families produce high quality kids.  Virtue-filled families produce virtue-filled kids. 

Moms and dads:  teach your children well.  Your relationship with your children should be based on love and not on commodity, necessity, greed or selfishness.  Teens have a tendency to use their parents.  Parents:  teach your children well.  Otherwise, they will learn to be manipulative in all their relationships.

It’s been sad for me to listen to the survivors of hurricane Sandy.  It’s been sad because it appears as though prior to Sandy, these people were already losing their valuables:  their family. 

Why are so many of these survivors telling us that they have no place to go?  How can they have no place to go?  Why do they have no place to go?  Don’t they have a mom or dad, brother or sister, aunt or uncle, nephew or niece?  Don’t have family?  It seems to me they’ve been riding out a storm their entire life!  The hurricane just took the last of what they had. 

Jesus noticed the poor widow.  Although God is big, it’s nice to know that He’s not too big to notice the little people (and the little details) in life.  We should take notice of them as well.  It will help us to be better men and women, children and grandchildren; to be more generous, to be more loving, to be more understanding, to be better prepared, to be wealthy in the things that matter most.  It will help us to love God above all things and to truly love our neighbor even better than ourselves.

Quality is not inversely proportional to quantity.  It is all connected to God.