Stewardship of God’s grace

Sisters and brothers in Christ, a dear friend shared this post from "The Chosen" page this morning and after I read it, I immediately thought: "I felt it (the magnitude of what God is calling [me] to do) at Ordination as we laid prostrated on the floor during the Litany of Saints." It is as Jesus tells us in today's Gospel parable, saying: "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more."

This is the "stewardship of God’s grace" that Saint Paul speaks of in his letter to the Ephesians, making all of us (through our baptism) ministers of God's grace "to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens."

Truly, being a disciple of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a calling and with it, a tremendous responsibility to live a life - in words and actions - worthy of that calling from God. Being an apostle of Christ demands even more of us. However, thanks be to God, He gives us the grace - through the Sacraments - to help us along that path to salvation and to bring others with us. This is our Christian hope and the reason for our joy. I know it is for me as I carry out the mission of the diakonia that Jesus has entrusted to me through his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Yet, not only me, but all of us who are baptized into the one Body of Christ and the mission of the Church.

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Gospel of the Day

Jesus said to his disciples: 

“Be sure of this:

if the master of the house had known the hour

when the thief was coming,

he would not have let his house be broken into.

You also must be prepared,

for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

Then Peter said,

“Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”

And the Lord replied,

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward

whom the master will put in charge of his servants

to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.

Truly, I say to you, he will put him

in charge of all his property.

But if that servant says to himself,

‘My master is delayed in coming,’

and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants,

to eat and drink and get drunk,

then that servant’s master will come

on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour

and will punish the servant severely

and assign him a place with the unfaithful.

That servant who knew his master’s will

but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will

shall be beaten severely;

and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will

but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating

shall be beaten only lightly. 

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,

and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”