“We have been entrusted with the administration and use of temporal wealth for the common good, not with the everlasting ownership of private property. If you accept the fact that ownership on earth is only fleeting and for a time, then you may be ready for eternal possessions in heaven. Call to mind the widow for forgot herself in her concern for the poor and, thinking only of the life to come, gave away all her means of subsistence. To this the final judge himself bears witness. Others, he says, have given of their superfluous wealth. But she, possessed of only two small coins, and more needy perhaps than many of the poor–though in spiritual riches she surpassed all the wealthy–she thought only of the world to come, and had such a longing for heavenly treasure that she gave away, all at once, whatever she had that was derived from the earth and was destined to return there. Let us then invest with the Lord what he has given us, for we have nothing that does not come from him. We are dependent upon him for our very existence.”
Paulinus of Nola (355-431), Roman Senator, Latin Poet in Letters 34, 2-4 on Mark 12:44b in The Good Works Reader, ed. by Thomas C. Oden (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2007) 75.