Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
God, to Whom we belong, sends us to one another, and gives some the ministry of stewardship in His Church. St. Paul exemplifies the kind of communication that is most fitting to the mission to others given him by the Lord. He makes explict his recognition of the Lord’s grace at work in the Christians in Rome: “you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge.” (Rom 15:14) And at the same time he tells them of their need to be admonished and reminded of what continues their sanctification. (Rom 15:14-16)
When we are admonished, because of the sting that it leaves in our pride, we can be tempted to forget that the one speaking may be doing so for our benefit, may be a sign of God’s providential care for us. The constant exhortation in the Christian tradition is to foster the humility which lowers pride’s defenses against the good contributions those around us, at home, at work, in school, etc can make to our spiritual well-being, particularly when those contributions fail to pamper our ego. The flip side of this, is that pride can make us cowardly when faced with the challenge of admonishing others. If our ears only recoil when our neighbor offers correction, then they may become deaf to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to offer correction (out of love) to our neighbor in turn.
Lastly, the Gospel parable, by focusing on the steward, leads us to consider those whose lives are given over to the stewardship of ministering in the Church. What is our relationship like to those neighbors of ours whom the Lord has called to the official and public responsibility of reminding us to follow Christ? Let us seek to receive their words with humble charity, and let us take time to pray for them (you might specifically pray for the pope and your local bishop) that they serve the Church prudently and diligently as the Lord commends