Gambling and a widow's mite

As a good Benedictine I’m trained in lectio divina.  The danger of doing lectio every day with scripture is that over the years, the stories become very familiar.  So familiar in fact, that while I may read them and listen to them as they are read, I can often tune them out.  So as I settled into my ‘lectio chair’ early this morning, I had to consciously tell myself to “pay attention!”

I spent time with the 1st and 2nd reading from the Sunday liturgy and then turned my attention to the Gospel reading from Mark.  It’s the familiar story of the widow’s mite:

And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums.  A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

I was struck with that last phrase, “her whole livelihood”.  As a vocation director, I often think it terms of discernment - it’s a job hazard.   I thought to myself that in a sense, 19 years ago I had given up my whole livelihood and tossed it into the ‘treasury’, a.k.a. religious life in my case.   My livelihood at that time was my job, a car, (luckily I didn’t own a house) and I moved away from dear friends and family.   I didn’t know when I entered that I would make it.  I would have to start over again if I didn’t.  I wasn’t a destitute widow as in our Gospel but I was stepping into a great big unknown.   In my more dramatic moments it was like stepping into the great abyss.

Entering religious life is a gamble.  I have gambled with my life instead of playing the ponies or heading to the nearest Riverboat Casino.  (which for us is 45 miles away on the Missouri River near St. Joseph, not that I’ve ever stopped, but I have passed the sign!)  Who knows what I may have done, the places I would have traveled to or who I may have married had I not followed those whisperings I heard in my heart from God.  

I have put my whole life down on the bet that God is worth my walking this monastic journey.  A whole lot of people would say that wasn’t a very good wager.  I suppose I won’t know for sure until I’m dead, but I’d rather put my trust in God than in anyone else...especially in politicians!

So if you are discerning religious life, a question I have for you is:  are you willing to hand over your whole livelihood and put it in the 'treasury'.  Are you willing to gamble and bet on God?  He is PROBABLY holding a Royal Flush in his hand so he WILL win in the end!