Living as a good steward of God's gifts

Gospel of the Day (Luke 16:1-8)

Then he also said to his disciples, "A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property.

He summoned him and said, 'What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.'

The steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.

I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.'

He called in his master's debtors one by one. To the first he said, 'How much do you owe my master?'

He replied, 'One hundred measures of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.'

Then to another he said, 'And you, how much do you owe?' He replied, 'One hundred kors of wheat.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.' And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. "For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

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Reflections:

Living as a good steward of God's gifts

I have no idea what to write you from these parts [India and Sri Lanka] except this: the consolations bestowed by our Lord God to those who go among the pagans to convert them to the faith of Christ are so great that, if there is any joy to be had in this life, it is surely this. I've often heard it said to someone going about amongst these Christians: «Lord, do not give me so many consolations in this life! Yet since, in your infinite goodness and pity, you are giving them me, take me into your holy glory! For indeed, there is such great suffering in living without seeing you after you have shown yourself to your creature in this way». Ah! If only those who look for knowledge in study took as much trouble in looking for the consolations of the apostolate as they give day and night to the pursuit of knowledge! If only those joys that the scholar seeks in what he is learning he were to seek in making his neighbor feel what he is in need of to know and serve God, how much more consoled he would find himself to be and better prepared to give an account of himself when Christ returns and asks him: «Give me an account of your stewardship»...

I will end, asking our Lord God... to bring us together in his holy glory. And to obtain this blessing let us take as our intercessors and advocates all the holy souls of the region where I now am... I beg all these holy souls to obtain for us from our Lord God, for so long as we remain separated, the grace of feeling his holy will in the depth of our souls and of fulfilling it perfectly.