September 22, 2013: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Gospel for September 22, 2013 

Sunday, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Lk 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:

I have a friend who is a manager.  People call him Sir Mac.  Several years ago, he was one of our youth leader in our parish. He was a very dedicated, focus, organize, and versatile.  After his college, he works in a food company and eventually after some years he was promoted as a manager. Just last week his team receives a commendation from their company because of their outstanding job.  Wherever branch he is assigned he always received a commendation of a Job well done.  In the complexity of an international company, I think it a hell of a job to receive an outstanding award.  The merit goes to his team, but yet his role I believe is crucial in achieving such effort. He is indeed a manager, a good manager.

Every company or any business establishment needs good a manager. It’s the Job of the manager to set the objective of that particular company and to supervise and manage the whole operation of the company. Not only that, but he also motivate people to work and to help develop their skills.  Therefore it is important for a manager to fulfill his/her task otherwise the company or the establishment is doomed.
I want to start our reflection today by looking at the creation.  Out of God’s goodness, he created the light, water, air, the plants and the animals. Everything around us is a product of God’s Goodness. He then created the human beings to take care of his creation. In Genesis 1:26, God created mankind to have dominion over all his creation. Therefore, each of us is steward of his creation and is directly accountable to him.

In our first reading, Amos criticized the rich not because of their wealth but because of their attitude toward the poor.  In our Gospel, it simply reminds us that it is not the money itself is the source of evil but it is the “love for money.”  We cannot serve two masters at a time. But if we take a closer look, there was actually no point of making comparison between the God and Money.  The first is the creator and the latter is creation. But most of the time, we forget about the creator and become more indulge on the creation. Our insatiable desires gradually destroy the creation that has been entrusted to us.

Our Readings today challenge us to be a steward, a good steward.  What we need is a good manager to overlook of the good of the community.  There are many of issues that confront us today.  The current issue of the pork barrel scam is a testimony of the greed politician and individual who doesn’t care about the people.  They have miss manage the money entrusted to them for the poor people.  Our present global environmental issues also remind us on abuses we inflict on the gift of creation that has been entrusted to each one of us. We are collecting the minerals and natural’s resources faster than the Mother Nature could replenish itself.  We are harvesting what is more than our needs.  The Mother Nature has enough for the need of every human being, but it doesn’t have enough for everybody’s greed. These are just among the many problem of greediness that we currently dealing with.
Today, let us acknowledge once again our total dependency on God.  Let us set in our heart this fundamental truth and we will begin to appreciate everything that has been entrusted to us.  Let us all be a good manager, accountable of all of our action. Let us use our resources in building God’s kingdom and not ours.   MANGYARI NAWA…