Saturday, June 06, 2020 - Ninth week of Ordinary Time - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12, 38-44 - Blessed are the poor in heart, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven!

In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus speaks to the people. He refers to the conduct of the leaders of the people, the scribes. They are among those who lead the Church. About them, Jesus says, "Beware of the scribes, ...

They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers." This means that it is not appropriate to make church services a means for one's own profit. It is unfortunate that some pastoral clerks indulge in prevarication when the good of the Church is the poor. Hence the "beware": that trust never excludes control.

In the second part, Jesus addresses the crowd and looks at his way of making the offerings. At the end, He said that the poor widow was making the greatest sacrifice, for she was offering not only the surplus but everything she had. So what is the point of teaching here? When we stand up for the collection in the church, Jesus himself stands nearby and sees what we put in and knows who we are. In other words, He knows what we give and He knows what we keep. That is why He says, "all of them have taken from their superfluous". In fact, some dare to put halves of banknotes, or coins that are no longer in use, even though they are offerings to God. Jesus sees them even when no one notices them.

But what it really means is that whether it is through offerings or through the gift of our person or through our involvement in the management of the goods of the Church, Jesus looks at us and sees us. All these sacrifices are aspects of our lives, presented with the sacrifice of Christ. Therefore, God's appreciated offering is not only a question of quantity but also of what is prepared, what comes from a sincere heart, what is worthy. Whether it is an offering in the form of money or goods, or whether it is the gift of self: prepare it so that our offerings are worthy of God.