This past month, we celebrated Halloween but noticed less enthusiasm for the holiday. The houses were not as decorated; there was a certain fatigue that seemed to hang over the holiday. Several of my colleagues reported receiving no trick-or-treaters.
The absence of enthusiasm for a holiday is indicative of a broader emotional fatigue. Our world needs salt and light, joy and hope, in short, the widow’s mite.
We all know the story so well, we might miss the meaning when Jesus tells us that she gave not from what she had in abundance, but from her poverty.
Some interpret this literally to mean to give until it hurts. The reality is deeper than that —it is a call to give of oneself beyond the comfort level. It means pouring out your time, your talent, the gift of presence, or of service, or of resources, not because someone we know is in need, but because there is need, and because one loves the Lord.
For giving money or working as a volunteer to be a gift of self, it must be like the widow’s mite. Many of us say, “We don’t have time.” As such, if we then decide to prioritize God, through prayer, through worship, through service, through tithing, through giving of what we think we lack, we are imitating the widow, giving of our poverty. Heaven is love unbound. Loving God is learning to love unbounded.
Love doesn’t measure the time given, the money spent. Love is weighed in timelessness. Looking into our children’s eyes for what turns out to be hours as we hold them as newborns, the rest of the world falls away. So also, when an artist paints, a musician plays, when a couple doesn’t tire of looking into each other’s eyes, love unbound is visible.
Time falls away and yet feels like it’s infinite. This is a glimpse into the reality of God’s love, a joy that does not exhaust, and that is not measured by the clock or the demands of the day.
The world is made for God, by God, out of love, for love. So, this November, add a little seasoning to the season. Be deliberate and purposeful with giving, with serving, with passing on to others what is due and more.
Being generous is at the heart of Thanksgiving, and it is imitative of the Eucharist, giving to others, as Christ offers His all to us.
Be givers of the widow’s mite in all we do, and there will be much this November for which to give thanks.
(Sherry Antonetti, the author of “The Book of Helen,” is a freelancer and a Catholic blogger @Patheos/Chocolate for Your Brain!)
