Father Solanus Casey was a Capuchin. He was born in Detroit in 1870 and died there in 1957 at 86. He was ordained in 1904, but with a strict proviso: he was never to preach, never to hear confessions, never to teach. He was what was called a "Mass priest." He served as porter in a New York friary for 20 years, served 30 years as porter in a friary in Detroit. He was richly endowed by the Holy Spirit, he could read souls, though intellectually he was poor. There were 10,000 people at his funeral. He is to be canonized as a true man of God. He gave all he had.

There are about 50,000 priests in this country and about 100,000 Sisters. We Cistercians of this branch number about 500 here: 400 monks, 100 nuns. But we give what we have. Even our dead are few. We have some 200 in our graveyard. To be sure, many went onto daughter-houses. But the number is modest. Nazareth has maybe 2,000, only a few decades older. Yet, however few ours be, they gave all.

Like the woman in the Gospel today. Jesus does not call it the widow's mite. We do. He praised her because she gave all. In a subsistence community, one can manage with little cash. And it was little she had. She gave it to the Church, all of it.

It was the wealthy who gave the mite. We should call the story:  the rich men's mite. To be sure, they were generous. They had means and they shared. Praiseworthy enough. But they could not hold a candle to what the widow did. She was munificent on a shoe-string.

Then why make comparisons? They can be odious. Margaret Truman could sing, had a pleasant voice, was trained. But in comparison with quality professionals, she did not make it. But she gave what she had.

So why did Christ compare, then? Probably because that's what the disciples were doing. They perhaps smiled or made disparaging remarks about the widow and her gift. Christ frequently took up passing comments, showing that even by their own standards the disciples did not make sense. "Why choose the best seat? You may be asked to move lower. Even by your own standards you lack insight." "No one becomes honorable by playing the part, looking important, being prominent. That is no route to honor. Even by your own logic, you do not pass." It's the way of the world, though. Big people drive big cars.

And we are called to be big. Not in the way of the world, but in the way of the widow -- extravagant. In the way of the widow gathering sticks, bringing water to Elijah, and then bread -- though she uses this last of what little she has, for him. Extravagant woman. Like the poor Jesus Who stripped Himself of glory to become poor for our sake that He might lead us to glory and eternal riches in Him. Extravagant.

So the call is to extravagance, not prudence. Munificence, not shrewd calculation. We can do it once in a while. And doing it once in a while makes it possible to do it once and for all when we make a leap of faith and accept Jesus wholly, and His Church -- His Spouse, His Bride, His Body. An extravagance we never regret and never renege on. This and this alone makes life worth living. The two widows were on to something. One hopes we are. And when we are, there is no hiding it. If you're stingy, you never got the message. No one who has drunk the wine of extravagance will ever stoop to stinginess on anything. Total gift brings total freedom. Amen.