November 10, 2024
XXXII Sunday of Ordinary Time
Mark 12:38-44
We saw two Sundays ago that Jesus' last miracle before entering Jerusalem and experiencing the Passion was that of healing a blind man, Bartimaeus (Mk 10:46-52). And this is because the disciple is the one who sees: he sees God at work in history and recognizes it by his unique and unmistakable style, which is the style of Easter.
Just like the disciples of Emmaus: they see a pilgrim walking with them, but they only recognize him when they see him breaking bread (Lk 24:31, 35). Because that gesture speaks of God, it speaks of his way of living and loving. The disciple is the one who learns to see, to look at life through the lens of Easter.
Today's Gospel (Mk 12:38-44) revolves around the theme of seeing and looking.
Jesus is in the temple with his disciples.
What he sees provides him with the opportunity to teach: one must beware of one category of people, the scribes, the wise, not because they do anything particularly bad or reprehensible. They are simply not people who look, but rather people who seek to be looked at (Mark 12:40).
They don't look at the Lord, and they don't help people to look at him, but everything they do they do for that reason alone, to be looked at.
For this reason, they desire and seek that which makes them noticeable the most: they hunger to be seen.
By doing this, the scribes occupy the space that should be the Lord's space, the space where we ought to look at Him: they put themselves in His place.
They have not yet encountered a God who sees them, they have not yet encountered the gaze of God who looks at them with love (Mark 10:21): it is this gaze that feeds the deep hunger for life that we carry within us.
If we do not meet this gaze, we are content to be seen by men. If we do not let God be the only witness to our life's work, we are constantly looking for other witnesses.
However, Jesus sees beyond.
He is sitting in front of the temple treasury, he sees a widow, who throws two small coins into the treasury, and he is sure that this woman has put in more than everyone else, more than those who had thrown so many coins into the treasury (Mark 12:42-44).
Jesus sees that this woman gives all she has (Mk 12:44). He does not measure the value of the offering, but the value of the giving heart. And this widow offers what is most valuable to her: not the leftover, not the dispensable, but the firstfruits, what is most precious to her. She offers her whole life.
If the scribes take up space, the widow, on the contrary, is the one who makes space.
She makes room by opening her heart to God, withholding nothing for herself: she lets God be everything to her, and she says this with a gesture that reflects what dwells in her heart.
But how can the widow do this?
She does it because she is a person free from the need to be seen.
She knows that no one will look at her, no one will see her: she lives before God, finding a way to tell Him that He is the only witness of her life, the only love of her life.
And, because of this, she is also free from the fear of being left with nothing: this woman already has everything, everything that makes her alive, she has found the treasure, the gaze of a God who sees her, who looks at her, who loves her. She knows that God loves everyone, but He has a soft spot for the poor, orphans, and widows: this is what she learned from her people. What the scribes have not yet understood, she knows.
She does not seek to be seen, for she already has the One who sees her.
And Jesus, precisely, sees her, witnesses to her life and heart.
+ Pierbattista
Unofficial translation - for all quotations, please use the original text in Italian - Translated by the Latin Patriarchate Media Office
