Formation Toolbox: Letting Go
Jesus, in the temple you are nodding off, as the rich and pompous come and go. Suddenly, someone catches your attention. A small worn-out woman hobbles by.
You look up; you see her; you notice; and you speak. Your eyes catch the scene because you want to and your glance goes beyond the mere externals.
This old woman releases two small coins from her hand, and from her possession, and in effect, from her life. You are watching from afar, but not far enough not to notice that these are her last.
She keeps no more coins for herself. She does the impossible—she exchanges earthly for heavenly.
The human action is not reduced to a hand and coins, it contains the motives and interior too—why she dropped them, and how this changed her. You don’t just see her, you notice her. And right away you have something to say about her.
She becomes, without even knowing it, an example for others; in fact, for all those who will ever hear today’s Gospel message. This woman gives what many others do not. She gives everything.
God’s ways are not man’s ways. Your judgments are divine, not human. You see and notice the motives of the heart.
And you not only perceive the change in her, you make this change happen by your grace. She opens, as it were, the door of her interior such that you are free to work your inner miracle.
You look for me too, and see and notice the state of my interior, waiting for the chance to rush through an opened door to change me.
Help me to open my hand and to drop my last coins, so you yourself can take their place in me.
