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| Give an account of thy stewardship |
Holy Mass will be celebrated on Sunday 4th August at Sacred Heart Morriston at 4 p.m. There will be tea and coffee available after Mass and the opportunity for confession.
The Mass will be of the 8th Sunday after Pentecost and the propers can be found here
An interesting discussion about the parable in this Mass can be found here
Now why would Jesus be telling a parable like this unless he wanted to draw out something serious from something totally ridiculous? And the Jewish rabbis, from time to time, did in fact use humor whenever they wanted to make a very serious point. That perhaps is what Jesus is doing in the gospel. He isn’t in any way suggesting that one should emulate the corrupt servant, or the unscrupulous debtors, or the equally crazy landowner. But he is reminding us—gently, and with much humor—that there is something we can learn from all of them.
They were, after all, typical men of the world, who have given all their energy to achieving money and the good life. They were what Jesus calls the “children of this world”. And we are told that if we, his followers, would only show the same dedication and resolve in pursuing goodness, we could achieve so much more! And neither is he telling us that wealth is bad or that we should neglect our worldly affairs. He is, however, telling us to regard things in the proper perspective; and that while some of us find ourselves having to actively pursue the treasures of this world, we should just as eagerly pursue the treasures of heaven.
Behind the humor of our gospel today then, are lessons Jesus would want us to seriously think about: [i] If only we were as eager and ingenious in our attempts to attain goodness as the rascals in the gospel are in attaining money and comfort, we would all be better persons. [ii] If only we would give as much attention to things which concern our souls as we do the things which concern our business, we would be much better men and women. [iii] And If only we would desire God as eagerly as we sometimes desire material wealth, we wouldn’t only be wealthy, we would be truly wealthy. For we will possess wealth that “no moth can destroy, no rust can corrode, and no thief can ever steal”.
