Fr Marco Lazzaron
e come back from our holidays’ season, the children are back to school during the week, we begin again our routines, and we continue to listen to what Jesus wants to tell us at Mass. Today Jesus speaks to us about a man who was a steward, a trustworthy person, someone well known, to whom people would give what they possess so that he may take care of them.
Jesus tells the story of this steward who had to look after a wealthy master’s estate: fields, houses, production of oil, flour, wine, cakes, snacks for children, lots of sweets, and so on. At a certain point, however, the master, since he was wasting money, decided to fire him and send him away. “Oh no, what will I do? Now that I will no longer be a steward, how will I manage? And who will care for me?” The steward was really worried and tried to figure out what to do. So, he called all those he knew who owed debts and told them to pay less in order to make them his friends and have someone who would help him when he was left alone. Of course, he did something not quite right, but he wanted to find a way not to end up badly.
Something similar happened to a young boy who lived in a big house in London. He had lots of building blocks, and all his schoolmates went to play at his house every day. He was never alone and always had someone to play with. However, the other friends were a very envious of his beautiful building blocks. One day when things did not go so well for the family, the mother came and said: “Dear son, I know how much you love your building blocks, but your father and I no longer have much money, and we must move into a smaller house where there is no space for all these toys”. It was a really bad moment… What to do? He felt like the richest of all his friends, but now… nothing, he would be the poorest of all, and no one would come to play with him. He was very sad when a brilliant idea came to mind. He began to call his friends one by one and giving away his toys, to each of his friends. He spent the whole day giving away his beautiful building blocks. In the end, he felt two feelings arising in his heart: he was sad because he had no longer his toys, but at the same time, he was very happy thinking back to the joyful and surprised faces of his friends. (His mother was also very happy of not having to move all the toys!) But the biggest surprise came in the following days: each of his friends wanted to invite him over and play with them in their houses. This little boy learnt the parable of today’s Gospel: if you have many possessions, do not use them for yourself, but to make others happy. What good is it to have so much if your friends are unhappy? In the Gospel, Jesus says a very important phrase: you cannot serve both God and wealth at the same time. If you love God, you must use your wealth to serve your brothers and sisters.
So, who is the steward? Each one of us is a steward! Each of us has received many things in life. They may be material riches or spiritual riches. Even just the time we have to do good is a great treasure. If we want to serve God, let us learn to use our wealth to make the people around us happy.