15. But you who are such as this, cannot labour in the Church. For your eyes, overcast with the gloom of blackness, and shadowed in night, do not see the needy and poor.  You are wealthy and rich, and do you think that you celebrate the Lord’s Supper, not at all considering the offering,44    “Corban.” [The note of the Oxford translation is useful in this place, quoting from Palmer, Antiq., iv. 8. But see Pellicia, Polity, etc., p. 237, trans. London, Masters, 1883.] who come to the Lord’s Supper without a sacrifice, and yet take part of the sacrifice which the poor man has offered? Consider in the Gospel the widow that remembered the heavenly precepts, doing good even amidst the difficulties and straits of poverty, casting two mites, which were all that she had, into the treasury; whom when the Lord observed and saw, regarding her work not for its abundance, but for its intention, and considering not how much, but from how much, she had given, He answered and said, “Verily I say unto you, that that widow hath cast in more than they all into the offerings of God. For all these have, of that which they had in abundance, cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.”45    Luke xxi. 3, 4. Greatly blessed and glorious woman, who even before the day of judgment hast merited to be praised by the voice of the Judge! Let the rich be ashamed of their barrenness and unbelief. The widow, the widow needy in means,46    This is differently read “a widow, a poor widow is found,” etc.; or, “a woman widowed and poor.” is found rich in works. And although everything that is given is conferred upon widows and orphans, she gives, whom it behoved to receive, that we may know thence what punishment, awaits the barren rich man, when by this very instance even the poor ought to labour in good works. And in order that we may understand that their labours are given to God, and that whoever performs them deserves well of the Lord, Christ calls this “the offerings of God,” and intimates that the widow has cast in two farthings into the offerings of God, that it may be more abundantly evident that he who hath pity on the poor lendeth to God.

XV. Caeterum, quae talis es, nec operari in Ecclesia potes. Egentem enim et pauperem non vident oculi tui superfusi nigroris tenebris et nocte contecti . 0612B Locuples et dives es, et Dominicum celebrare te credis, quae corban omnino non respicis, quae in 0613A Dominicum sine sacrificio venis, quae partem de sacrificio quod pauper obtulit sumis. Intuere in Evangelio viduam praeceptorum coelestium memorem, inter ipsas pressuras et angustias egestatis operantem, in gazophylacium duo quae sola sibi fuerant minuta mittentem: quam cum animadverteret Dominus et videret, non de patrimonio sed de animo opus ejus examinans, et considerans non quantum sed ex quanto dedisset, respondit et dixit: Amen dico vobis quoniam vidua ista plus omnibus misit in dona Dei. Omnes enim isti ex eo quod abundavit illis miserunt in dona Dei, haec autem de inopia sua omnem quemcumque habuit victum misit (Luc. XXI, 3). Multum beata mulier et gloriosa, quae etiam antediem judicii judicis meruit voce laudari. Pudeat divites 0613B sterilitatis atque infidelitatis suae . Vidua, et vidua inops rebus, dives in opere invenitur. Cumque universa quae dantur pupillis et viduis conferantur, dat illa quam oportebat accipere; ut sciamus quae poena sterilem divitem maneat, quando hoc ipso documento operari etiam pauperes debeant. Atque, ut intelligamus haec opera Deo dari et eum quisquis haec faciat Dominum promereri, Christus illud Dei dona appellat, et in dona Dei viduam duos quadrantes misisse significat, ut magis ac magis possit esse manifestum quia qui miseretur pauperis Deum foenerat .