NOTES for Mar 12:38-44

Remembering that God sees us can give a person an astonishing strength for life. This is what matters in the episode at the Temple treasury recounted to us today by the evangelist Mark. There are moments in our lives when it seems that no one sees us and the deeds we perform are done alone before God. At such moments it is important to remember that Jesus sees you. But even more important is how He looks at us.

The crowd passes by the treasury at the doors of the Temple; there is noise, the cries of sacrificial animals, the blare of trumpets... And Jesus sits and looks at the people, at what they do when they think no one sees them. The very fact that He is interested in looking at us is already a miracle of God’s mercy. As the psalmist says: “What is man that You remember him?” And it is an even greater mercy that He looks without wishing to reproach or accuse, without intending to separate the worthy from the unworthy. Most importantly, what we see in this episode about the widow’s mite is that He does not compare us with one another. He compares what each of us brings to the House of God with our own means, not with other people.