The poor widow put two copper coins into the temple treasury
and we are told that she gave away all that she had.
We have so much, and we would find it nearly impossible to
give away everything that we had, just like the good young man who went
away sadly from the Lord because he was rich and the Lord had encouraged him to
sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor.
But could we give away just one small thing? Would it be
possible to do that today? In the monastery we have a place where we can leave
clothing to be distributed to the poor. I imagine that today I am going to
sacrifice one piece of clothing for that collection. But what will I sacrifice?
Will it be an old piece of clothing that I haven’t worn in years? Or might it
be something that I like and that I wear often? The thought is difficult; giving
away something that I use and like would be like tearing something away from my
personhood, and find that in reaction to the thought of giving it away is to
want to cling to it more tenaciously than ever. No, this is a silly idea. I
think I will let it pass.
It is so difficult for we who have so much to separate
ourselves from what we have. In a sense, I think it is true that what we have
actually owns us rather than the other way around.
But imagine this: Imagine that you have indeed given away
everything, keeping nothing back. And imagine that you are going to have
to depend on God completely for anything else you need today. Is your faith
strong enough to believe that you will be given what you need? Or would you
tremble in panic?
And yet, even in the midst of so much opulence, at the very
bottom of it all, it is God who gives us what we need when we need it---and
realize that those needs are not necessarily material.
But God does supply all our needs, and the things that we think
we need that have not been given are things which God knows we really do not
need, or that God knows would end up being no good for us. This reminds me of a
saying I once heard: “If you want to have what you need, then take delight in
what you have.
And so here are a few rambling thoughts that might help us
prepare spiritually for Thanksgiving when it occurs later this week in the
United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment