The Mighty Mite
To
the church in Diaspora[1].
Mark
12:38-44
The widow’s mite: an event in the life of
Jesus
The story of the widow’s mite is not a parable; it’s an event that
happened in the life of Jesus. “One day when Jesus was teaching in the
The
widow’s mite: an event of mine
The widow’s mite became, as it
were, an event also in my life. For I’ve touched it in a shirt-tail sort of
way. Years ago at St. Benedict the
Perhaps the coin was "lifted" from somebody’s collection and
now had become a beggar’s mite tossed into the
An unabridged reading.
Before the story of the widow’s mite in the gospel
reading today, Jesus paints a poignantly uncomplimentary picture of the widow’s
religious leaders—the scribes, the official teachers and interpreters of the Law of Moses. “Beware of
the scribes. They prance around in long colorful robes and love receiving salutations
in the marketplace and grab the seats of honor in synagogues and at banquets.
They cheat widows of their homes, and then to cover up what kind of men they
are they pretend to be pious by praying long prayers in public” (Mk 12: 38-40).
The missalette by means of brackets allows for a
shortened reading of today’s gospel by omitting reading that vitriolic
description of the scribes. Why would anyone want to suggest a shorter reading
of today’s gospel, since in its entirety it is already very short? More
importantly the two events (the vitriolic description of prancing scribes in
flowing robes and a poor widow in shabby dress tossing in all that she had to
live on) are not unrelated events. They are very related. They belong together.
They make up one narrative. They should be read as a unit. So throw the brackets away and read it all as
one and get its full impact.
A new interpretation
Fr. Roger Vermalen Karban delivers
the full impact of an unabridged reading of today’s gospel in his weekly commentary
on the Sunday scriptures. He writes,
When we
couple the widow's action with Jesus' attack on the scribes (her religious
leaders who devour the houses of widows) we realize he's simply pointing to the
woman and saying I rest my case! Obviously these well-fed, well-clothed and well-honored
individuals, under the pretext of "I'll say one for you" have given
this poor widow the impression that she's obligated to support their sumptuous
lifestyle, even to the point of destroying herself. Jesus' message is that
those leaders should be taking care of her, not vice versa. ``What a shame,”
he's telling his followers, ``that some leaders use religion as a cover for
selfishly taking instead as a stimulus for generously giving.”
That gives us a quite new interpretation of the widow and
her two pennies. Jesus isn’t praising her. He’s simply feeling sorry for the
poor woman. She thinks she has to contribute to the support of the scribes (her
well-fed religious leaders), while she is practically starving. He’s not
praising the widow; he’s indicting her religious leaders.
The voice of Jesus in Pete Townshend
In the fiercely indicting voice of Jesus I hear the
equally fiercely indicting voice of a gifted lyricist and musician, Pete
Townshend. In a piece entitled A Man in a
Purple Dress he indicts the modern scribes--the modern teachers of religion—clad
in their purple dresses:
How dare you wear a robe to
preside
How dare you cover your
head to hide
Your face from God.
How dare you smile from
behind your beard
To hide the fact your
heart’s afeared
And wave your rod
How dare you be the one to
assess
Me, in this God-forsaken mess
You, a man, in a purple
dress
A man in a purple dress.
You are all the same
Gilded and absured….
Men above men, or prats[2]
With your high hats
You priest, you mullah so
high
You pope, you wise rabbi
You’re invisible to me
Like vapor from the sea.
How dare you be the one to
assess
Me, in this God-forsaken
mess
You, a man, in a purple
dress
A man in a purple dress.
But Pete Townshend is not without humility. He
concludes with,
I lovingly mock you noble
lords
We all dress up to grant
awards
I do that as well.
Conclusion
Back to
the old interpretation
At the
end of the day I still cling also to the old interpretation. I still want to
praise the poor widow for her mighty mite. I still want to praise her for
tossing in more than what all those rich people put together tossed in. Foolish
as it was for her to toss in all she had to live on in order to feed fat felines,
I still want to praise her. The heavenly treasury now reimburses her greatly. I
also praise Jesus for feasting his eyes on something which nobody else saw in
the