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Connections...
November 12,2000
"Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplace, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets& "
"This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty& "
Mark 12:38-44
No free lunch
A nineteenth-century story tells of two Eastern European rabbis who were traveling together and stopped to eat at an inn owned by a poor but pious widow. During the meal, one of the rabbis engaged in a long, detailed conversation with the rather talkative woman, who welcomed their company; the other rabbi sat quietly and, when not eating, turned his attention to a holy text he was studying. When they rose to leave, the widow refused to let the rabbis pay for the meal.
Outside, the more convivial of the two gently chided his companion, "It seem to me that you are guilty of stealing a meal from that woman."
His friend looked up in astonishment, "She herself told us that we didn't have to pay."
"She didn't want us to pay money," the first rabbi responded. "But the payment she sought was that we listen and talk to her. This you didn't do."
[From The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-to-Day Guide to Ethical Living by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin.]
CONNECTION: It is not the station we hold nor the wealth we command that matters to God but our willingness to put our lives and resources at the service of others, that gives meaning to our faith. The kingdom of God is realized only in our embracing Christ's spirit of servanthood--servanthood that finds fulfillment and satisfaction in the love, compassion and kindness we can extend to others, that enables us to place the common good and the genuine needs of others above our own wants and narrow interests. The faithful disciple honors the dignity of the servant above the powerful, canonizes the total generosity of the widow above the empty gestures of the scribe.v
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