The Mass readings for Sunday, November 10, are taken from 1 Kings 17:10-16; Psalm Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10; Hebrews 9:24-28; and Mark 12:38-44.

No one is small in the eyes of God. God sees us all.

In Old Testament culture, widows belong to the class of people described as poor. Along with peasants, manual laborers, beggars, prostitutes, and the sick, they are collectively known in Hebrew as the “anawim YHWH” or the “poor of YHWH.”

In the New Testament, the poor of YHWH can be referred to as the “little ones.”

To be “poor” and to be counted among those as “little ones” almost mean the same thing.

To be poor and little means being marginalized in society. To be poor and little means being socially unimportant. To be poor and little means being in constant need. To be poor and little means utter dependence on God.

The great liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, who recently passed away, suggested that in the Bible, being “poor” (or poverty) could mean two things: first is being materially or economically poor (which is a result of social inequalities and injustices); and, second, being spiritually or existentially poor.

I believe that none of us can ever say that we are not in need of anything. By the mere fact that we are mere mortals, mere creatures, we are all in need.

If there is something that is shared by Elon Musk or Donald Trump or a basurero (garbage collector) in Payatas or a young saleslady (who, in a few days, will revert back to being unemployed thanks to the government’s labor contractualization policies) or by any random or insignificant person you’d meet, it has to be the fact that we all need air for us to breathe and live.

We all need air. We all need something. That is why we can claim that deep down inside our beings, we are all poor.

Being poor is not something that is to be romanticized, much less exploited for political and even religious gains.

For example, it is immoral to promise false hopes to homeless persons — to the point of telling them that they should rejoice because God is pleased by their suffering.

But more than material or economic needs, the most painful kind of suffering that the poor or the little ones have to endure is that of being deprived of recognition, of acceptance, of worth, of importance. In a word, it is that feeling of not being loved.

We all go through this again and again; this painful struggle of needing to be loved — our poverty for love.

It is the pain of lolos and lolas (grandfathers and grandmothers) who feel useless and abandoned by their children who now have families of their own.

It is the pain of a Filipina domestic helper who, while taking care of “First World” babies, longs to kiss her own baby back home.

It is the pain of boredom, of misery, of not finding meaning or purpose in one’s life.

It is the pain of being discriminated against by no less than the Church because of one’s sexual orientation or because of any “irregular” circumstances that one has to endure.

The God of the Bible has a soft heart for the poor. The Church calls this the “preferential option for the poor.” This Sunday’s Gospel — the story of the widow who offered her two coins despite her poverty — tells us that God sees us, that God knows us and our poverty.

To be seen and recognized by God in the midst of our poverty and littleness is Good News. By putting the poor old widow in the spotlight, Jesus is teaching us a few things.

To say that “God sees us” is a basic affirmation that he loves us and is in solidarity with us. It is like a pat on one’s weary shoulders.

To say that “God sees us” is a warning and a call to conversion. It is a warning to all of us who — directly or indirectly — cause and perpetrate the suffering of the poor.

Apart from being unjust and discriminating towards the poor, perhaps our biggest contribution in the suffering of others is that we fail to see them. In failing to see the poor and being indifferent to the poor, we are depriving them not only of their material and spiritual needs. We also deprive them of the basic love and dignity that everyone deserves as creatures created in the likeness and image of God whom we call Our Father.

To say that “God sees us” is an invitation to action. The widow, I’d like to imagine, believes by faith that God sees her and her sufferings. This faith probably kept her going and even motivated her generosity. In like manner, apart from the generosity of offering two coins, it seems that Jesus is inviting us to be generous enough to look at others or to see the poor the way God sees them: always with compassion, always with love, always in solidarity.

God sees us. And because he sees us, we can say that he loves us. This gives us the audacity to say that no one is small in the eyes of God. – Rappler.com

Ted Tuvera is a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Capiz. He is finishing his theological studies at the University of Santo Tomas, where he earned his journalism degree almost a decade ago. He previously worked as a correspondent for a national daily, covering Malacañang and other political stories.