Gospel (Lk 21,1-4) - At that time, Jesus looked up and saw the rich people throwing their offerings into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow, who threw in two pennies, and said: «Truly I tell you, this widow, so poor, has thrown in more than anyone else. In fact, all of them threw away part of their surplus as an offering. Instead, in her misery, she threw away everything she had to live on."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Jesus, who is still in the temple, has just warned his listeners against the behavior of the scribes who praise prayers but oppress widows. While he is speaking he observes among the rich people who make their large offering to be admired, even a poor widow who throws two small coins into the treasury. That woman gave everything to God, she kept nothing for herself. Her gesture, in fact, does not arise from a calculation but only from love for her God. Truly that widow loves God with all her soul, with all her strength, with all of herself, to the point of giving has to live. And love made that gesture immortal, just as it makes every word and every good action done towards the weak and the poor immortal. What seems insignificant to men is made eternal by God. It should be noted that the alms that were thrown into the temple baskets were used for the organization of worship, for the maintenance of the priests and for helping the poor. That poor widow therefore felt responsible both for the cult and for the poor. This is an important point to make, in order to avoid a false conception that divides those who give from those who receive. The poor widow feels responsible for her, to also help those who are perhaps poorer than her. We could say that even the poor must be educated, like all of us, to help those who are poorer than them. And one could say: no one is so poor that he cannot help someone else who is poorer than him. There is therefore a circularity in helping each other between those who have more and those who have less. Love does not divide us into categories, on the contrary it unites us in a circular solidarity in which we no longer understand who is helping and who is receiving. Jesus, setting this poor widow as an example for everyone, states that the poor evangelize us. Yes, they make us who consider ourselves healthy understand our weakness, our littleness and, above all, what we are before God: poor beggars of love. Gregory the Great, and with him the entire tradition of the Church, reminds us that the poor we have helped are our most powerful intercessors before God.