GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 18TH SEPTEMBER 2016
25TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
1ST READING: Amos 8:4-7
PSALM: Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8
2ND READING: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
GOSPEL: Luke 16:1-13
THEME: IT’S TIME TO BE WISE
As I walked through the cemetery with one of the caretakers, he showed me certain portions of land that had been bought in advance by individuals and families in anticipation of their future deaths. They had prepared for their future exit from this world.
There are others too who prepare for their exit from the world through recourse to funeral insurance policies and the making of wills. We prepare for our EXIT from this world but how much preparation do we make for our ENTRANCE into eternity?
In our Gospel text, Jesus gives a parable of a steward who, in the face of losing his job on account of incompetency (wasteful with his master’s property), makes a strategic move that wins him the commendation of his master. There are two main schools of thought in explaining this parable. One school of thought looks at this parable in the light of the Palestinian custom of agents acting on behalf of their masters and the usurious practices common to such agents. From that perspective, it would mean that by reducing the amount owed by the debtors, the steward decided to forgo his own usurious commission in order to find favour in the sight of his debtors, knowing very well that he would be dismissed from his position soon. The other school of thought negates the element of usury and opines that the incompetent steward further cheated the master by debt reduction to win the hearts of the debtors so that they would receive him into their houses when he is booted out of his job.
Irrespective of whatever school of thought we throw our weights behind, the underlining fact is that the steward was very shrewd and smart in preparing for his future.
Sometimes, in our quest to build houses, buy cars and acquire other forms of wealth, we trample the needy and destroy the poor of the land. We buy up the weak for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals (cf. Amos 8:6). We forget that there is a day of reckoning awaiting each one of us in the future and that charity to the poor and needy is a good investment for that day.
Just like the steward in today’s Gospel text, we must start making feverish preparations for that moment when each one of us will lose his (her) stewardship of this earth and stand in eternity. How and where are you going to spend your eternity? And how prepared are you for that ultimate future? Every decision you choose to make today has an effect on your eternity. There is a time to be wise and that time is now!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, all that I am and have is yours. I lay it all at your feet. Amen
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).