By Fr. Simione Volavola, MSC(Pennsylvania Community, Center Valley, PA)
Father Simi professed his first vows on February 20, 1995, and was ordained on January 27, 2001.
Dear friends,
“You cannot serve both God and mammon.”
(Luke 16:13)
This Sunday, our Lord draws our attention to the real dangers of replacing Him with money. We heard last Sunday in the famous parable of the prodigal son how both the brothers in that story succumbed to the temptation to prefer their father’s money over their father.
In today’s parable, our Lord deepens His teaching on the need to be vigilant about our own relationship with Him. We are stewards of His creation, but like the steward in the parable, we have preferred His creation over Him. This is a sickness that has plagued our humanity.
Like the prodigal sons, the steward in today’s parable squanders his master’s property. When the Father is rejected and His property preferred over Him, we inevitably squander anything we have because their eternal value rest only in the Father’s love for His creatures.
So just as the steward in the parable is prudent in securing his own future with his master’s tenants, so must we seek to secure our future in the Father’s kingdom. There is only one way to do that: JESUS.
In Jesus, the Father Himself has come in search of us. In Jesus suffering and death on the cross, the Father is pouring all of Himself to anyone who is poor, empty, restless for Him.
Our ongoing sacrifice of ourselves to Him who empties Himself to us fills us then with growing compassion and self-emptying love for the poor. That is everyone.