The illusion of self sufficiency

Our society places great emphasis upon financial responsibility and providing for oneself. We spend great deal of energy, time and money planning and projecting for our financial needs. The Scriptures today confront us with images and examples that are incomprehensible from this perspective. These widows giving up all that they had to live on challenge us in our own outlook and decisions. They contradict our deep emotional and mental commitment to self-sufficiency. In faith they realize that all that they are and have comes from God and in gratitude they are as generous to others as God is generous to them. We might look at their poverty and wonder just how generous God had been to them. They see things very differently than we do. They see and act out of a very deep faith. We are called to grow in the faith that has been given to us and to act out of that faith. These two widows encourage us to let go of the illusion of self-sufficiency and in so doing open ourselves to receive life in God’s fullness.