“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.”
We must be prepared. We must live our lives knowing that it can end at any moment. Too often in life we get complacent. We feel that we’re safe, that nothing will happen and that we will live to a ripe old age. We feel that we will have plenty of time to make amends and forgive those who hurt us, or ask for forgiveness to those we may have hurt, or to seek the forgiveness of God. We also may feel that we have plenty of time to give to charity, or seek God’s will for us, that some day, we’ll give more to those less fortunate or seek to help those who cannot help themselves. But mostly, we wait until it is the “right time” – when we can afford it, or when we have the time, basically when it is convenient. And more often than not, we get so caught up in the world and fast-paced life; we find that doing God’s will and maintaining a strong faith in Him is just not convenient. God takes a back seat to the material things of this world. This is what happened in todays Gospel.
The master entrusts his faithful steward to tend to his business and treat his servants with respect, dignity, and integrity. Instead, when the master is gone, his steward neglects his responsibilities, has a party, mistreats the other servants and trashes the house! They think that the master is going to be delayed and that they will get away with it. They will have everything cleaned up and tidy before the master gets home. But what if the master is early? Is the house of our soul cleaned and straightened up, or are we a cluttered mess?
This happens in our daily lives as well. Do we put off tasks at work that we need to get done and procrastinate knowing that we will eventually buckle-down and get our work done? Do we refuse to let go of our pride and make amends with those we may have hurt or may be feuding with, thinking that eventually the other person will make the first move? Do we choose to do the fun stuff, the pleasures of life before things that may be more important? Do we place daily tasks and work ahead of prayer and spending time with Christ? And most importantly, do we choose not to go to confession and ask God for forgiveness thinking that we will do it later? What happens if our time comes? What happens if we procrastinate too long and it negatively affects our work and those we work with, or if it’s too late and a person who we have a feud with passes away, or if we ourselves part this earth without getting right with God first?
We have all been given a gift, the gift of truth. Truth about life, and how we need to live it, truth about how we need to treat each other, and the truth about what lies beyond this earth, after we die. Christ showed us this truth, and this is our gift. And it is our responsibility to live a life that Christ is proud of, treating others as we would want to be treated, and loving God first and foremost. We do this through realizing our purpose, and who God made us to be. In addition to the gift that Christ gave us through his death, we have each been given gifts and talents that no one else has. Gifts and talents that God’s expects us to use to do His will, and help to spread His gospel. And this doesn’t mean traveling around with just the clothes we have on and preaching on street-corners and on hillsides as Christ and his disciples did, but rather in how we use our gifts to help others, to perform a service for society, and to make others better people by spreading Christ’s message throughout our communities. We each have been given these gifts, and it is our duty and responsibility to understand what they are and how to use them to do God’s will. We don’t want to wait until it’s too late.
St Paul wrote in the first reading that “the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same Body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”
In other words, we are all in this together, we are one human race created by God, and He loves us all. And we should too. It’s tough, and it’s a huge challenge with some people. We have been shown the truth, and we as Christians have been chosen to live this truth, and teach it to those around us, regardless of their beliefs or ethnicity.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus said:
“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”
We cannot waste the gifts and talents we have been entrusted with. We as Christians have been entrusted to spread Christ’s Gospel to those we encounter. We as Catholics have the privilege of experiencing Christ’s grace through the sacraments, and we have been entrusted with the added responsibility to spread His grace to the world. For most of us, this may seem daunting or even near impossible. But God has chosen us, each and every one of us for a specific plan. Paul probably felt the least worthy to do this, as he wrote:
“To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, 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”
God has chosen us, and entrusts us with the grace to do His will. We must be prepared and not waste the time we have or the gifts we’ve been given, for we do not know when the master will come.
