IHS
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost—15 July A.D. 2018
Ave Maria!
[Ordinary of the Mass]
[English Text]
[Latin Text]
Abba!
“For the Spirit Himself gives testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also: heirs indeed of God,
and joint heirs with Christ.”[1]Today’s Gospel may be the best example of those parables that cannot be taken very literally. It should be obvious to everyone that our Lord is not recommending that we steal our employer’s assets in order to curry favor with his customers, in order to expect money from them when we are in need. In the Night Office, Saint Jerome, perhaps the major translator of the Bible said: “The Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely though wickedly.”[2] He is commending the steward for his prudence, and certainly not for his dishonesty.
There are two ways in which this prudence can be rightly imitated. As Saint Paul says, “We are joint heirs with Christ.” The inheritance from God the Father is a spiritual one. We can lay up treasure in heaven—spiritual treasure—by using the spiritual goods of our common inheritance. Through no merit of our own, we have the ability to share in the Sacrifice of the Cross every time we attend Holy Mass. By investing about 45-minutes of our time, we can share in the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, each day of the week. We will shed no blood, feel no pain, and carry no heavy load, but we will immensely ingratiate God the Father, even though all of the effort and assets involved belong to Him, as our Master, and not to ourselves. If you don’t have seven days free, consider investing two days a week.
Consider the graces of a good Confession. By telling God how we have let Him down and failed in His sight, we will be rewarded with Sanctifying grace. Again, we will carry no load, feel no pain, and offer nothing of our own—the assets and efforts, will again belong exclusively to Almighty God. But this doesn’t stop with the Mass and the Sacraments.
Our Catholic Faith makes it possible to gain God’s graces just about anywhere and at any time. We have the gift of prayer, with which we can use the assets belonging to God to adore Him, thank Him, express contrition to Him, and to petition Him for our well-being. This prayer can be vocal or mental—no one around you need be disturbed, or even know that it is going on. The Mass and Sacraments, admittedly, require some amount of time, usually in a specific place—but all of us have abundant time for vocal or mental prayer: walking, driving, lawn mowing, even swimming laps in a pool, are opportunities for spending our Master’s assets for our own good. No doubt you can think of others.
Tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel—the Brown Scapular feast. I have decided to bless our Scapulars today, in anticipation of the feast—these things are more meaningful if you actually take part in the blessing. There is much to say about Our Lady’s Scapular—you will occasionally hear a sermon, and there are innumerable books and writings.
But I mention the Scapular today, just as an example of an enormous class of things which allow us to profitably use our Master’s assets for our own good. Beside the Scapular, and of course, the Rosary, the Church “sacramentalizes” a plethora of things which enable our good intentions to be united with the merits and prayers of Her founder and members. You may expect to hear “palms, and ashes, and holy water”—but you should know that the Roman Ritual also contains blessings for bees and beer, railroads, telegraph systems, etc., etc.—and then has a blessing “for everything else.” Every good thing can be made an agent of holiness. Rarely will a priest tell you that he cannot bless something, and never will a good priest tell you that he considers doing so a waste of time. Always ask!
In the Office I mentioned, Saint Jerome clearly tells us that we must be magnanimous in sharing the assets of the Master with those in need. In Saint Matthew’s 25th chapter, our Lord clearly states that our eternal salvation is based on doing good for Him by doing good for those whom He calls “the least of My brethren.”[3] He identifies these brethren as “hungry, or thirsty, or strangers, or naked, or sick, or in prison.” We refer to this doing good as the “Corporal works of Mercy.” We must not make the mistake of thinking that these “[Bodily] works of Mercy” are our own doing—that they are distributions of our own assets, rather than the assets of our Master. We would have nothing material without an asset loaned to us by God. Your agricultural bounty depends absolutely on God’s creation of the soil beneath your feet, the sun in the sky, and His nitrogen rich rain. And, please never forget that it was God who gave you the strength and intellect to make use of these things. The same can be said for everything you have.
Finally, we must mention the “Spiritual works of Mercy.” Various parts of Scripture require us—according to our abilities—“to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to admonish sinners, to bear patiently those who wrong us, to forgive offenses, to comfort the afflicted, and to pray for the living and the dead.”[4] The first three may require some learning on our part, but all of them rely on using the “assets of the Master.”
No Catholic should ally himself with “the unjust steward”—essentially a thief, who stole his master’s property. Yet, we must emulate his prudence: “For the Spirit Himself gives testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also: heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” May it never be said that we failed to exercise our inheritance with prudence!
NOTES:
[1] Epistle: Romans viii:12-17 (Cited: v.17) http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=52&ch=8&l=12-#x
[3] Matthew xxv:31-46 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=47&ch=25&l=31-#x
[4] Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy,” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10198d.htm
