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(1Kgs.17:10-16;\xa0\xa0 Ps.146:1,7-10;\xa0\xa0 Heb.9:24-28;\xa0\xa0 Mk.12:38-44)\xa0 \u201cShe, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.\u201d Jesus sits in the temple and watches as \u201cthe crowd put[s] money into the treasury.\u201d\xa0 When He sees \u201ca poor widow\u2026 put in two small coins worth a few cents,\u201d He calls His disciples over, and speaks the truth to them: \u201cAmen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.\u201d\xa0 Whatever wealth anyone else might have stuffed into the box cannot begin to compare to her whole sacrifice \u2013 it mimics His own. And in our first reading we find another poor widow sacrificing her livelihood to the Lord and His prophet.\xa0 It is the time of a great famine upon the land (called down from heaven by Elijah himself) and the widow has nothing left to eat but \u201ca handful of flour in [her] jar and a little oil in [her] jug.\u201d\xa0 She tells us her situation: \u201cJust now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die.\u201d\xa0 A last supper.\xa0 Straits most of us can only imagine.\xa0 Yet when the prophet Elijah asks her, \u201cFirst make me a little cake and bring it to me,\u201d invoking the name of the God of Israel and promising His blessings, this woman who is not even of the house of Israel does not hesitate to give first to this stranger of the only sustenance she has for herself and her son.\xa0 Another sacrifice mimicking Christ\u2019s own. Both widows\u2019 sacrifices shall be blessed by the Lord; we can be assured of this.\xa0 For \u201cthe widow He sustains\u201d; it is He who \u201cgives food to the hungry\u201d and \u201cprotects strangers\u201d\u2026 and any offering made in His name can only be multiplied.\xa0 Indeed, Elijah proves himself not to be as the Pharisees who \u201cdevour the houses of widows,\u201d for by his presence with his benefactor \u201cshe was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well,\u201d the flour and the oil remaining until the rains returned.\xa0 \u201cThe Lord keeps faith forever.\u201d Brothers and sisters, Christ \u201chas appeared at the end of the age to take away sins by His sacrifice.\u201d\xa0 He does this \u201conce for all,\u201d and so does not \u201coffer Himself repeatedly.\u201d\xa0 But we, brothers and sisters, we must join with that sacrifice \u2013 it is for us to offer ourselves as He has, as these widows have, if we are to partake of its graces.\xa0 As it is manifested on our altar each day, we renew our commitment to be sharers in the blood He shed.\xa0 As we drink from His cup let us remember always that it is our very lives that we are giving up.\xa0 And the Lord will bless us as His own.\xa0 And with these widows we shall sit at His table in heaven. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Under God" from The Innocent Heart, first album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, we must give what we have to you or we shall have nothing. YHWH, help us to give our whole livelihood to you, to join in the sacrifice of your Son.\xa0 For you will not abandon those who hunger for your love but bless them with all they need for their journey to Heaven. The widow you sustain, dear God; those who believe in you, you indeed bless.\xa0 And we must show that we eagerly await the Second Coming of your Son by not being attached to the things of this passing earth.\xa0 We must rather make known our faith in you by entrusting all into your hands.\xa0 For Jesus, who has entered Heaven on our behalf, taking our sins with Him that we might be purged, will not abandon us on the last day if we offer ourselves in union with His sacrifice. All we have let us give to you, O LORD, even our food for the day, and you shall feed us from Heaven with the Bread that sustains all poor souls unto eternity.\xa0 Our jar of flour shall not go empty nor our jug of oil run dry, for in them are the Body and Blood of your only Son.