Deacon Tom Writes,
“I Will Never Forget”
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
We would be seriously mistaken to think that cheating the poor and stealing from the needy was a modern-day phenomenon. Sad to say that such behavior has been around for a long time. 750 years before Christ the Prophet Amos chastises those who tinkered with their scales in order to overcharge the poor and needy for their wheat and grain. The Lord has a few caustic words for them, “Never will I forget a thing they have done”!
Have you ever heard the expression, “keeping your thumb on the scale”? In whose favor does that work? In addition, those who engage in such a devious practice, as Amos writes, can’t wait for the Sabbath and the Festival of the New Moon to be over with so that they can take advantage of the poor of the land. Such behavior has gotten the Lord’s attention, says Amos, and the Lord, “will never forget a thing they have done”!
In the gospel, Jesus tells the story of a manager who has quite the way with numbers. Apparently, he was an unscrupulous steward whose deception was detected by his employer. What the steward lacked in integrity, however, he made up for with his imagination. Before he is fired, he cancels part of the debt that others owed his master. This way those whose debts he had forgiven would take care of him after he was discharged. What a fraud and so cleverly done. That’s why Jesus points him out. As deceitful as this act was, Jesus recognizes that the dishonest steward was very successful in taking very good care of himself.
Now, Jesus is not advocating deceitful means in our dealings with the world. Rather, he is suggesting that his disciples be as ingenious and imaginative in ways of building up the Kingdom of God as those who seek to acquire an inordinate share of the things of this world. If just a small token of our efforts were directed toward advancing the Kingdom of God in all our daily encounters; if we put into practice this same imaginative vision in doing God’s work, in our families and offices, where we work or go to school, where we shop or play, in the way we view the people whose ideologies, ethnicities, political views, socio-economic backgrounds differ from ours, do you not think that a more just and peaceful world would unfold before our very eyes. And if you believe that then I suspect two things would follow: one, we would realize that we are missing out on something special and two, we would be more energize to make our contribution wherever we can as best we are able.
Today’s readings prompt us to reflect on how much imagination and energy we put into bringing about God’s Kingdom as we go about our daily affairs. Do we see the poor being abused and cheated in any way today and point it out, refuse to participate, seek to put an end to unfair and unjust practices that oppress them? This is an important question for disciples of Jesus to ask themselves today and every day. And why is that? It is because those words of the Prophet Amos also apply to those who help shoulder the burdens of the poor today... the Lord says, “Never will I forget a thing they have done.”
Enjoy the day,
Deacon Tom
Visit my Blog at: www.deacontomwrites.blogspot.com
And tune into the www.deaconspod.com to hear a contemporary Catholic conversation exploring the treasures our faith has to offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment