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Daily Homily for November 26, 2012
St. Luke’s Institute
DROPPING OF
THE COIN +++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Imagine Jesus, after strenuous debates with
members of the Sanhedrin and the Sadducees, is tired and takes a seat on a
bench in the temple’s Court of the Women, head in his hands
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He looks up and sees a number of folks dropping
large amounts of coins in the 13 inverted-trumpet-like receptacles
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The coins echo: “tsch, tsch, tsch” and then a
small bent over elderly widow drops two tiny coins – pling, pling – into the
receptacle and humbly walks away
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He then rises and announces to all that, “What
this poor widow has done out values all your offerings!”
2 THINGS DETERMINE
VALUE +++++++++++++++++++++
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2 things
determine the value of a gift
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1st the spirit in which it is given
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When we give from our mind, the gift can be
given with a grudge, for the sake of prestige, or self-display
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It’s said that in such cases, it loses half its
value
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2nd a gift’s value is judged by the
sacrifice which it involves
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The gifts of the well-to-do in the temple didn’t
cost them much personally, but for the widow, it is all she had to live on
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They reckoned with the heads, she gave from her
heart with seeming reckless abandon
CONCLUSION
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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How are we with giving out of our need: giving
time or monetary gifts, giving of our talents or insights?
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Jesus confronts us with two models today and
asks us to judge ourselves and what we need to change
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
