Word of the day

A reading from the Book of Revelation
Rv 14:1-3, 4b-5

I, John, looked and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion,
and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand
who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
I heard a sound from heaven
like the sound of rushing water or a loud peal of thunder.
The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.
They were singing what seemed to be a new hymn before the throne,
before the four living creatures and the elders.
No one could learn this hymn except the hundred and forty-four thousand
who had been ransomed from the earth.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
They have been ransomed as the first fruits
of the human race for God and the Lamb.
On their lips no deceit has been found; they are unblemished.

From the Gospel according to Luke
LK 21:1-4

When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people
putting their offerings into the treasury
and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.
He said, “I tell you truly,
this poor widow put in more than all the rest;
for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”

In a certain sense the Church is “a widow somewhat, because she is waiting for her Bridegroom to return...”. Of course, “she has her Spouse in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, in the poor: but she is waiting for Him to return”. What of “the figure of the Church can be seen in this woman”? She wasn’t important, her name didn’t appear in the newspapers, no one knew her. She had no degree... nothing. Nothing. She did not shine of her own light. Likewise, the great virtue of the Church is not shining of her own light, but rather reflecting the light that comes from her Spouse. Especially since over the centuries, when the Church wanted to have her own light, she was wrong. (…) The Church receives light from there, from the Lord, and all the services we do in the Church help her to receive that light. When a service is lacking this light, it’s not good because it causes the Church to become rich, or powerful, or to seek power, or to lose her way, as has happened so many times in history and, as it happens in our life when we want to have another light: our own light, which is not really that of the Lord. (…)

When the Church is humble and poor, and even when the Church confesses her misfortunes — we all have them — the Church is faithful. It’s as if the Church were saying: I am darkened, but light comes to me from there! and this does us so much good. Thus, let us pray to this widow who is surely in heaven that she may teach us to be like the Church, renouncing all we have and keeping nothing for ourselves but instead giving all for the Lord and for our neighbour. Always humble and without boasting of having our own light, but always seeking the light which comes from the Lord. (Santa Maria, 24 November 2014)