In response to a question regarding the greatest commandment, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with a your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mt.22:38) In other words, with everything—with all that we are and all that we have. The “poor widow” in today’s gospel is a model of such complete self-giving love—nothing held back, all offered to God in perfect trust. Would that we each had the strength and courage, the heart of love, to follow her example in our lives today.

We don’t know the details of her life, how old she is, how long she’s been a widow, what family she may have, but we do know that, in the society of Jesus’ time, widows often were destitute, depending on the generosity of the community to meet their needs. Yet here she is, offering “all she had to live on” to the glory of God, trusting in the providential hand of God at work in her life day by day. How can we have that kind of radical trust in our lives? In my experience, God develops it in us a little at a time, incrementally increasing our trust until we come to see that we can rely on God in all things, both large and small. We finally begin to come to realize that we can depend on God’s presence to see us through whatever comes our way with divine steadfast love and mercy. God’s grace covers all the bases. We have nothing to fear.

Trusting God in all things, fearing nothing, we are filled with joy and delight. Our hearts overflow with desire to surrender everything to God, to offer our very lives, our time, our skills and abilities, our resources, our pain and distress, our strengths and weaknesses, trusting God to use them as may be best for us and for the world, just as the “poor widow” did.