THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Her Doctrine and Morals
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
22 July 2012

Dear Friends,

We are all servants of God. All that we have and all that we are belongs to Him. All our possessions: our bodies, our souls, everything is His. We are His servants; and have only been given a temporary custody or use of these things. We must all likewise die and then we can be stewards no longer. We will have to give an account of all that has been entrusted to us. There is no reason why we cannot enjoy our stewardship here and now as good stewards and then at the end of our lives enjoy an eternal reward for our faithfulness in heaven.

Jesus has given us this parable today to teach us prudence and wisdom. We are not to imitate the unjustness of the steward but rather his prudence. The servant in the parable looked ahead to his future and made necessary arrangements to secure a more comfortable arrangement for himself. We are called upon not only to consider giving an account of material things but, even more importantly the spiritual ones. What have we done with the many graces that God has placed in our hands? Our Baptismal grace – have we kept it pure and undefiled? The graces we received in Confession, or even more precious the graces that have come to us in the Holy Eucharist? So many sacramental graces! But this is not all, how many spiritual inspirations has not God sent to us through the ministry of our Guardian Angels, our Patron Saints, and even our own consciences?

We know that there will be a judgment after we leave this world, but many imprudently attempt to forget this or block it from their thoughts. These people are truly foolish. Their stewardship is going to be taken away from them and they will no longer be able to perform any works to help themselves and they have not made any provisions for themselves. These poor foolish souls will be stripped of everything and cast into hell forever with the devils. They have taken God’s gifts and attributed them to themselves. This is a most wicked imitation of the devils who bold-facedly imagined themselves equal to God. It is a lie of the most profound proportions. All the good they imagine is from themselves or is due to them and no thought or consideration is ever given to the true source of all these goods – God.

If we are to avoid this terrible mistake we must frequently remind ourselves that we are not masters, but rather are unworthy, humble servants, who must give an account of everything. All our goods both body and soul have been entrusted to us by God. In reminding ourselves of this we must begin to prepare ourselves for this accounting or judgment. As much as the children of this world prudently work for worldly advantages, we must work even more so for spiritual ones. It is a sad commentary that the children of this world are wiser in their ways than the children of light.

With the large number of unemployed today, we see a lot of promotions inviting people to improve their education so as to secure a job or gain a better job for themselves and improve their future. We must likewise seek to improve our spiritual education so that we may more profitably work out our salvation. We must ever strive to know God more and more; and to love God more and more; and then to serve Him more and more in this life and thus secure for ourselves peace of conscience now and a resting place in eternity.

Every one of us is a sinner and therefore an unjust steward of God. We can redeem ourselves with prayer, penance, good works, and alms deeds, but even better we can always strive to become good stewards every moment of our lives. We must seek to use all of God’s gifts for His purposes. The good stewards do not care for their own things, but rather spend their time caring for the Master’s things. They are always seeking to use all that has been entrusted to them to gain the best advantages for God. All for the greater honor and glory of God. If we strive for this goal day after day we will have a wisdom that will exceed the prudence of the unjust steward in the Gospel parable for today. Let it not be said of us that the children of the world are wiser in the ways of the world than we are in the ways of God.