Saturday of the 34th Week

1 Timothy 6:11-16

Timothy, my son, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen. 

Luke 20:46-21:4

The Lord said to his disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the market-places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Last Sunday we began the season of the Triodion, and this week abstained from fasting lest we, like the Pharisee, think we are made righteous just because we “fast twice a week” (Lk. 18:12). As we approach the beginning of Great Lent, we are reminded that those who merely act religious, who show off their piety, and who for a pretence make long prayers, will receive, not a reward, but the greater condemnation. Let us therefore not make a show of our Lenten observance, but “anoint our head and wash our face, that our fasting may not be seen by others but by our Father who is in secret (Matt. 6:17-18). The offering of the widow was accepted because it was truly an offering, whereas those of the rich, although greater in amount, were just for show, being only a tiny percentage of their actual wealth. We may see a beggar on the street, give them some money and feel rather pleased with ourselves. But how much of our wealth are we actually giving away? How often would we buy dinner for that beggar while going hungry ourselves? We should remember that this is one of the primary reasons for fasting. We eat less so that we can have more to give others. If I, during the fast, spend £3 on dinner instead of £10, the £7 I save belong to the poor.

What the Gospel also reminds us, however, is that we need to give our all, not just of our material possessions, but also of ourselves. In the case of fasting and prayer, for example, we often remind ourselves that we are only expected to do what we can, but we normally confuse what we can do with what we want to do and what won’t make us feel uncomfortable. But our spiritual life is not supposed to be comfortable, it’s supposed to be a struggle. We are called to be “transformed by the renewal of our mind” (Rom. 12:1), and that certainly won’t happen by staying within our comfort zone. Christianity without the Cross is not Christianity. We need to fight the good fight and take hold of the eternal life to which we were called. Lent is an opportunity for us to intensify our spiritual struggle, to increase not only the amount of money we give to charity, but the amount of ourselves we give to God. We spend a little longer at prayer, a little longer studying the Scriptures, a little longer helping those around us, working to become like that widow who, although she was poor, put in all she had.