The King is calling (Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Cycle C)

Taking a look at the news or newspapers in the morning is really disappointing: every day there is more pain, betrayal, deception, sorrow, etc. Now I can just read your minds and see many of you thinking, “Why all this bad news? After all, I look at this blog for a comment on the good news that the Gospel of Christ brings. Well, my seemingly pessimistic reflections were actually occasioned by our Gospel passage. There Jesus tells a story about someone who cheats. A steward has been growing rich by mishandling his employer’s property. Sounds pretty contemporary. But when he is found out and threatened with punishment he is very wily in finding ways to assure his security for the future. Surprisingly when the employer returns to settle matters and finds how clever he has been in dealing with the debtors, he praises him and so, it seems, does Jesus. This, of course, raises all kinds of problems for us who read it today as perhaps it did when Luke wrote his Gospel. Is the employer and is Jesus praising this man for his dishonesty? That could hardly be the case. Indeed to prevent misunderstanding Jesus says, “The children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” Jesus is using the story then not to tell us to imitate the steward in his dishonesty but in his prudence and cleverness in taking care of himself. We, however, should do it, not for purely material gain, but to do our part in furthering the Kingdom of heaven. We have been hearing some very challenging things from Jesus these past weeks in Ordinary Time as we follow him on his journey to Jerusalem and to the Cross. Two weeks ago he told the crowds who were traveling with him, and he told us as well, that nothing less than complete commitment on our part will satisfy him. And he warned them, and us, that we should know what we are getting into if we accept the challenge. I am sure that it was not easy to be a committed follower of Jesus in the first century when Luke wrote his Gospel. And it certainly is no easier today, 2019. Christian commitment means trying to change the world. Let us remember that we are not simply individuals trying to accomplish the impossible. First of all we are members of the Body of Christ. We have one another, we have all those who profess, not only the Catholic Faith, but anyone who claims to be a Christian. Together there is much that we can do that we could not do alone. And even more important than that, we have Jesus as our head. In a key meditation of his Spiritual Exercises St. Ignatius of Loyola asks the retreatant to imagine Christ, our King, calling all of us as a body, but also each one in particular, to follow him. He asks us to hear Jesus make this appeal, “It is my will to win over the whole world, to conquer sin, hatred, and death – all the enemies between the human race and God. Whoever wishes to join me in this mission must be willing to labor with me, so that by following me in suffering, he or she may follow me in glory.” And to that St. Ignatius adds this question: “With God inviting and with victory assured, how can anyone of right mind not give himself or herself over to Jesus and his work?” Indeed, how can we not? • AE