Mark 12:44 — Community Reflections

MARK 12:44 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”

They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on — the contrast is complete: they gave out of their wealth (the surplus, the overflow that cost them nothing essential) while she gave out of her poverty (the deficit, the nothing that cost her everything). All she had to live on — the two lepta were not a token offering from reserve but the entirety of her daily sustenance. The widow who gave everything to the temple whose leaders devour widows' houses is Mark's most devastating irony of the Jerusalem section.

Church Fathers on Mark 12:44

The Lord, who had warned them to avoid the desire of high place and vain glory, now distinguishes by a sure test those who brought in gifts.
Bede · 8th century

Now there was a praiseworthy custom amongst the Jews, that those who were able and willing should put something into the treasury, for the maintenance of the priests, the poor, and the widows.
Theophylact · 11th century

But in a mystical sense, they are rich, who bring forth from the treasure of their heart things new and old, which are the obscure and hidden things of Divine wisdom in both testaments; but who is the poor woman, if it be not I and those like me, who cast in what I can, and have the will to explain to you, where I have, not the power. For God does not consider how much ye bear, but what is the store from which it comes; but each at all events can bring his farthing, that is,…
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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