18 September 2016
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
No! Jesus does not mean to give the steward in today’s gospel as an example of how I should act. He points him out as someone I can easily identify. How many people like him do I know or hear about – a men who risks so much to obtain a good that is ephemeral?
But then at the end of the Gospel Jesus gets personal. He says: “You cannot serve both God and mammon [money].” Yes! “you” is “I”. Money or any material good is given to me for the benefit, the happiness of others.
He emphasizes that money is not an end, a good in itself. It is a perishable good, a means to achieve a lasting good, one that I take with me leave this life. It is a means to put into practice fraternal love. Everything I have is given to me in trusteeship, and one day I will have to give an account of it all. Not to realize this is tantamount to lacking faith.
So today I’ll spend some time thinking about what has been given to me and how I use it for the benefit of others, and then I’ll pray to Jesus asking him to show me how I can grow in faith.