Daily Thoughts: The Gospel for
today (Luke 16:1-8), always seems to be a confusing one. What exactly is Jesus
saying? It seems like he is praising the unfaithful steward just because he
figures out a way to land on his feet after being fired. Perhaps the key word
for today’s Gospel is “prudence” or maybe a better word might “cleverness.”
Jesus says the steward is prudent, that
he is shrewd, pragmatic and has foresight. However as I said above we might
also say that the steward is also clever, meaning he is shrewd, ingenious,
crafty and skillful. Prudence and cleverness share some of the same meanings
and in some instances could be used to say the same thing.
At our community mass this morning one
of my Passionist brothers talked about the cleverness of the steward and what
Jesus might be getting at in the Gospel.
In our world there are many clever
people. Often as a world, a culture, a society we put our cleverness to work in
many ways. We create machines and systems that can protect us and destroy our
enemies. We have created the internet, cellphones and computers that help us
communicate better, work fast and be more productive. We create sophisticated systems
to warn us of impending disasters like hurricanes, tsunamis and other
challenges of nature. We create systems to spy on one another, to hack computers
and disrupt communications. We have created instruments of war some of which that
can destroy the world. We are very clever people.
Yet up to this point in history we have
not been able to figure out how to feed everyone, how to cloth everyone or how
to give everyone shelter. Perhaps this gets at the point that Jesus’ is making
with his parable. The people of the world are very clever but sometimes people
of faith are not. We put our prudence, our cleverness, our shrewdness, our
foresightedness, our skillfulness to work for ourselves, but as people of
faith, it might be time to put it to work for others.
We can learn for the cleverness of the
world but only if our cleverness leads us to bringing God to the world.
I think Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
SJ said it best when he wrote, “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves,
the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then,
for a second time in the history of the world, [humankind] will have discovered
fire.”
Let us be clever people of faith and
discover for the world God’s love once again.
Have a great day everyone!
Daily Prayer: Loving God do
not be remote from us today. Be in our work, our travel, our offices, our
meetings, our relationships, our loved ones, our tasks, our journeys, our alone
moments, our homes – in our thoughts, our words and in our hearts. Amen!
Runner’s Thoughts: “If you are
losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” (Kathrine Switzer)
If you are losing faith in yourself go to the celebration of the Eucharist and
look around at the community of faith that is struggling with you!
Daily Blessings: Happy Friday
everyone! Yes, I am back after about a week off. I took a little down time
after turning 60 and running my third marathon in five weeks. I just wanted to
give my body and mind a rest. Now this doesn’t mean that I have not been
thinking of you and praying for you. You can always be sure that you are in my
prayers each day.
I hope your week has been a good one and
that you are ready for a little rest and relaxation yourself as the weekend is
almost upon us once again. I pray that whatever you have planned for the
weekend will allow you some time to just be, to enjoy the gift of your life and
to be touched by the people most important to you!
May God bless us all this Friday with
truth, love, enthusiasm, energy and life. So that we may always walk the
journey, dance to the music, sing the tune and embrace the gift of God that we
are, making today and everyday worth remembering! Blessings to all. Glad to be
back. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul
