Mother Teresa once told this story about a family with eight children who had not eaten for days. A man appeared at the convent door one evening bringing news of the family, and Mother Teresa immediately gathered some food and went to the family home. “When I finally arrived,” she said, “I saw the faces of those little children disfigured by hunger, but there was no sorrow or sadness in them, just the deep pain of hunger. I gave rice to the mother and she divided it in two, then went out carrying half the rice with her. “When she came back I asked where she had gone and she answered, “To my neighbors—they are hungry also.”
In another story, a woman I’ll call Chelsea saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown McDonald’s recently and bought the man a cheeseburger. This wouldn’t be unusual except that Chelsea is also homeless and the 99¢ hamburger was a large chunk of the $7.50 she’d earned from panhandling that day.
A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ survey of consumer spending found that the poorest fifth of American households contributed an average of 4.3% of their income to charitable organizations. The richest fifth gave just 2.1%–less than half that rate. The generosity of the poor is also higher in hard times than the generosity of the wealthy. Those in the bottom fifth of the income bracket always give more than their capacity, the next two-fifths give at their capacity, and the top two-fifths could give two to three times more than they do. Knowing what it is to have little or nothing, the poor tend to share what they have with those they see as less fortunate.
Let’s set these stories and statistics against the backdrop of Scripture readings from last month and today. Remember the rich young man? Jesus asked him to go and sell what he had, give the proceeds to the poor, then come back and follow him. The youth went away sad because he couldn’t bear to part with all he had accumulated. On the other hand, the two poor widows we hear about today gave all they had—one gave the very last measure of flour and oil in her larder to feed a stranger, and the other gave her last two coins to the Temple coffers so those she believed to be poorer than herself could be fed.
The women clearly put the value of caring for others before their own personal survival. But however it may appear to us, this was not a reckless act. Out of a deep and radical faith, they placed themselves in God’s hands—trusting, letting go—as Peace Pilgrim did in our own day. It is an ideal the Gospel holds before us with assurances of God’s abiding care. And it leaves us with a question: how shall we respond to the Gospel challenge? Where do we fit on a continuum between the rich young man clinging to his possessions and these poor widows giving the last of theirs away?
This is a question for each of us to answer personally, since our personal choice matters just as much as it mattered in the lives of the widows and the rich young man. And it is also a question for us to answer as a community, because the coffers at the Temple receiving those two small coins in today’s Gospel represents the donation basket we pass among ourselves at each of our Masses.
When all of us agreed early this year to select ministry partners in each of our Sophia Christi locations, we also determined to give a portion of our income to each of those partners at the end of the year. So when the Council met a few weeks ago, members looked carefully at the 2015 budget and decided to give 100% of everything beyond what we need to meet our financial obligations this year to those partners. Therefore, at the end of December, whatever is left over in our budget will be divided equally between the North County Food Bank in Battle Ground, and Rose Haven in Portland. By next year we hope to add an additional partner in Eugene so we can extend Sophia Christi’s outreach to the poor in all three of our locations.
As a community we are making strides in fulfilling our commitment to social justice. By partnering with organizations offering direct service we help provide a warm meal, a gentle hand, a utilities voucher, medical and mental health care, a shelter from the cold and assistance in finding housing. Both Rose Haven and the North County Food Bank do these things, and with them, through them, so do we. In your liturgy aid today you have information about them—about things they need as well as services they offer. Both provide invaluable assistance for people who rely on non-profit agencies for bare essentials as well as for help moving out of extreme poverty. And both have Sophia Christi members volunteering their time and energy, adding to the compassionate care and attention they provide. We are a very small community, but what our volunteers and our donations mean and will mean to the people served can’t be underestimated.
So let’s think about our Ministry Partners and the basic needs they address every day. Let’s remember the women, children and men without homes, and without resources and skills to navigate the complex system of social services available to them. Without advocates and assistance so many are lost. Both the Food Bank and Rose Haven offer them hope. Theirs is a vital ministry and, by partnering with them we, too, are able to serve some of the poorest of the poor in our area.
So when you enter these doors from now on, please remember our commitment as a community to give all that we can to these partners so that, through them, Sophia Christi can reach and serve those in greatest need. It is our “widow’s mite” and in Pope Francis’ words, it is our opportunity to share what we’ve been given “in the Joy of the Gospel.”
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