Today’s liturgy reveals some important facts about the
poor.
1) The poor are blessed because they have a greater recognition of
their need for God. The two widows in the readings give up
everything, totally trusting in the goodness of the Lord.
2) The poor are therefore more generous than others. Jesus made it
very clear that “this poor widow contributed more than all the
others who donated to the treasury.” Recent studies in the
United States reveal the same phenomenon: relative to their
resources, lower income people are the most generous.
3) The poor may or may not have society on their side, but there is
no doubt where God stands: The Lord “secures justice for the
oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets captives free, gives sight
to the blind, raises up those that were bowed down, protects
strangers, and sustains the fatherless and the widow.”
Those among us who are not poor receive the challenge to be poor in
spirit. We pray at the start of this liturgy for freedom of
spiritĀ “ ... so that we may more willingly give our lives in
service to all.”
In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others.
Pope Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens, 1971: 23