Reflection for September 21 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Luke 16:1-13

Gospel: Luke 16:1-13

Jesus 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 the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’ 

The steward 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. 

I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. 

If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?  If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

Do you recognize that what you have right now—money, power, earthly wealth, and even life itself—is not actually yours? Many of us act as if everything we possess was earned solely by the sweat of our brow. As a result, we become too selfish with what we have, clinging to it as though our very lives depend on it. 

Yet, we fail to realize that we are simply stewards of all these blessings. At God’s appointed time, we will be called to give an account of everything He has entrusted to us. On that day, the Lord will ask: “What have you done with the things I entrusted to you—your talents, your wealth, your time, and even your life? Did you use them only to advance your own selfish agenda, or did you use them to serve Me and others?”

The steward in today’s Gospel failed miserably in his task to care for his master’s wealth. Because of his unfaithfulness, everything that had been entrusted to him was taken back. 

We too are merely stewards. Everything we possess has been allowed by God’s invisible hand. He has guided and helped us acquire what we have—not for our selfish gain, but so that we may bless others. 

But sadly, many of us act as though we earned everything on our own. We bow before the false god of greed, clinging tightly to our possessions, refusing to share, and neglecting to help—even when we have the means to do so. 

The truth is this: what we cling to today will one day be taken from us. But what we give in love, in faith, and in service to God and others, will echo into eternity. 

When the Lord calls you to account for your life, will you be found faithful in using His blessings to glorify Him and to serve others—or will you be found clinging to treasures that cannot last? – Marino J. Dasmarinas