Stewardship (25th Sunday Ordinary C)

In 2013, On National Heroes’ Day, Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle joined a protest march that called for the abolition of the Pork Barrel fund as it had been the source of scandalous corruption in the government. He exhorted all Filipinos to act collectively with heroism and with honor anywhere they are.  Few days earlier in a press conference, the Cardinal had addressed his challenge to those involved in the “intricate web” of corruption to visit the poor and slum areas in order to get a real feel of the suffering of the poor. The Cardinal said: “On my own, I just think those that are doing such things are capable because the poor is absent in their lives. Maybe they cannot see them or they don’t want to see them. But once they see them and even feel their suffering, maybe, they will at least be disheartened and moved by it.”

Indeed, the corruption of the country’s resources perpetuates the suffering of the poor.  The multibillion pork barrel scam, for instance, has been a great injustice to the Filipino people who, for long, have been struggling with poverty while those who are entrusted with power continue to enrich themselves at the poor’s expense.

Today’s readings lend themselves to a reflection on material stewardship. The readings allow us to focus on three aspects of stewardship: It is at the service of the poor, at the service of one’s legitimate needs, and at the service of God.

At the service of the poor.  Cardinal Tagle’s challenge to the politicians to be sensitive to the suffering of the poor echoes the message of the Prophet Amos in the first reading (Am 8:4-7) to those “who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land.” Amos decries the unjust practices of the rich, particularly the merchants who exploit the poor people in buying and selling—the scales were adjusted to the advantage of the agent, while the poor paid more or received less.  Amos warns them of the Lord’s justice. They will be held accountable for everything they have done against the poor.

A responsible stewardship is sensitive to the needs of the poor. Those who have been entrusted with power and with the resources ought to see that all these must be at the service of the suffering poor.  Hence, stewardship implies the commitment to put up socio-economic and political systems, policies, and practices which assure the material security of the needy and the empowerment of the poor.

In our present clamor for a clean government, we pray that the justice of God prevails, that the exploitative and corrupt systems be abolished, and that we all take seriously the invitation to address the cry of the suffering poor.   

At the service of one’s legitimate needs. Material goods are entrusted to us as our means of meeting our basic needs and those of our dependents.  Christian stewardship does not scorn material things but calls for detachment from them lest they might take the place of God in our lives.  Material things are means and not end in themselves.  They have to be utilized with prudence in order to serve our end. 

The parable of the fired steward in the gospel reading (Lk 16: 1-13) illustrates that in the moment of crisis, the steward prudently used the material things at his disposal to secure his future.  He instructed his master’s debtors to write a discounted amount on their promissory notes.  These reduced the charges owed by eliminating the “service charge” which is normally due to him as an agent. By deciding to let go of his share, he gained friends from whom he could ask help in the future.

Stewardship calls for prudence and a degree of freedom from material goods in order to serve rightfully our basic needs without falling into the trap of greed and inordinate love for created things.

At the service of God.  The gospel reading ends with this reminder: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (v. 13). The inordinate love for created things compels us to sacrifice our health, family, friendship, moral principles, and faith convictions in favor of material gains. This is serving mammon and not God. When we close our eyes to the suffering of the poor and enrich ourselves at the expense of the poor, we are serving mammon and not God.  

Christian stewardship is serving God, not mammon. A faithful steward knows that God is the master; God is the source of bounty; God is the ultimate owner of everything. It is God he serves not money; His will he follows.

If only we can manage our material goods and other human affairs according to His will as the Prophet Amos reminds us, we would see justice, peace, and true development flourish in our land. 

Hence, today we ask the Master to forgive us of our dishonesty and mismanagement as stewards.  We ask for forgiveness for causing the suffering of the poor, for our greed and selfishness, for worshipping and serving mammon. And we ask the grace of prudence and freedom to dispose of our material goods at the service of the poor, of our own legitimate needs, and of God.

The Face of God’s Mercy (24th Sunday Ordinary C)

 

About six years ago, an appalling P10-billion pork barrel scam was exposed. It was said to be masterminded by Janet Napoles involving a number of our “honorable” lawmakers and other high-profile officials.  Everyone then was understandably dissociating from her.  A mere photograph in the past that showed posing with her all smiles at a party or any function became regrettable as it would raise public suspicions of complicity with the revolting corruption she was tied with. Nobody wanted to be seen hanging around with her anymore.

Our keen hypocritical sense nudges us to keep a distance from those we consider sinners because it is shameful and detrimental to our already damaged “reputation.”

In the light of today’s readings, particularly the gospel (Lk 15: 1-32), it’s possible to imagine Jesus doing what everybody else is avoiding—dining and probably enjoying the picture taking with the scam mastermind in front of all the raised eyebrows around. 

The gospel reading today depicts Jesus hanging around with the public sinners of his time who were drawing near to listen to him. A complaint from the observing religious sectors goes this way: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (v.2). This passage may be approached from two vantage points, that of the self-righteous and that of the sinner.

In fact, this statement comes from the self-righteous religious groups of Jesus’ time. As such, it is a criticism of Jesus’ act. The Pharisees and Scribes are scandalized by Jesus’ association with the sinners. For them, it is important to maintain a distance from sinners as purity is their most important vow and brushing elbows with the sinful is risking contamination. From where they stand, the act of Jesus is unbecoming of a holy man. They expect Jesus to act like them, i.e., to shoo away the sinners as one drives away a leper.

From the stand point of the sinners, however, their experience of Jesus mingling and dining with them is an experience of profound hope, the experience of the Good News. When the institution of their religion has virtually closed the door of salvation for them, they experience in Jesus the God who seeks them out when they are lost. They experience a God who does not condemn but saves.  Jesus’ act of spending time with the sinners is their invitation to conversion and their assurance that God’s mercy is available for them.

The three parables, that of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son, have a common message: God rejoices over a sinner who repents and turns back to Him. In the parables, Jesus probably intends to depict unrealistic reasons for the joyful celebration, like inviting the neighborhood for a feast because a coin is found.  Jesus’ message could be that God’s mercy, in human reckoning, is unrealistic and illogical. The ways of God in dealing with the sinners is far beyond our ways.

Especially the self-righteous, represented by the elder brother in the parable of the lost son, cannot understand the father’s merciful and unquestioning acceptance of the wasteful and irresponsible sibling. And it’s much harder to find any rhyme and reason in the joyful celebration of a banquet with his return. The self-righteous has his own logical standards and moral parameters; and the problem with this is that God’s mercy does not work in accordance with this standard or parameter. Hence, the self-righteous, while trying to maintain an exacting and high sense of justice in life, is in great danger of missing out on the abundance of God’s mercy.

On the other hand, the sinners receive God’s mercy as a welcome surprise like the experience of the prodigal son being embraced by the father and unquestioningly reinstated as a son after having turned away from him. The sinners real sense of unworthiness may find God’s forgiveness incredible but the same experience of humility makes sinners recognized their thirst for forgiveness and their absolute dependence on God’s graciousness.

Let us avoid self-righteousness. It is the surest way not to experience the mercy of God, not because there is lack of it, but because our conceit doesn’t allow the ocean of God’s mercy to flow into our hearts.

Our invitation is clear: Let us celebrate hope in spite of our helplessness as sinners. We may be naturally incredulous of the vast mercy of God revealed by Jesus but let us embrace it anyway or, more correctly, let us allow the God of mercy to embrace us as a father embraces his child with love.

We are in many ways like J. Napoles, only with different forms and degrees of sinfulness perhaps. It is consoling to remember that Jesus would always love to dine with us and allow us to take pictures with him in spite of our horrible reputations. He does not dissociate from us because we are sinners. On the contrary, he invites us to be in fellowship with him, to trust in God’s mercy, confessing with total surrender our sins that we may regain the newness of life that we have wasted and lost. Indeed, Jesus is “the face of the Father’s mercy” (Misericordiae Vultus, 1).

The Way of the Cross (Exaltation of the Holy Cross)

I was blessed to have had the opportunity to do a pilgrimage to the Holy Land last year with some friends.  The last day of the pilgrimage brought us to the site where our Lord was crucified and buried. The whole site is enclosed by a magnificent Church known now as the Church of the Sepulcher. I had a good exchange with our guide who informed me that the church was built through the wishes of St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine.  St. Helena had it built out of her joy because of the discovery of the Holy Cross on which Jesus was crucified.  For more information, I consulted Mr. Google and I was rewarded with the story surrounding the finding of the true cross in the early 300s.  This tradition is directly relevant to our celebration today, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

Tradition has it, as told by St. John Chrysostom, that St. Helena had a burning pious desire to find the real cross of Christ.  So she did a pilgrimage to Palestine. In Jerusalem, she commissioned an excavation on the hill of Calvary.  The site of Jesus’ sepulcher had been buried by the heathens out of an aversion to Christianity. They had heaped upon his sepulcher a great quantity of rubbish and stones.  Hence, the excavation had to go deep.  The holy sepulcher was eventually discovered.  Nearby were three crosses, the nails, and the title which had been affixed to Jesus’ cross.

Which was the cross of Jesus? St. Macarius, then the bishop of Jerusalem, had an inspired idea. To determine which was the true cross of Jesus, he had all three crosses touched an ailing and dying woman as he prayed for God to reveal which cross was the one that saved the world. The two crosses had no effect on the woman.  The third, however, brought complete healing!  The cross of our Lord was finally found!  The good news of the discovery spread like wild fire; and, once again, Christians gathered to venerate it as had been done before.  Out of joy, St. Helena then commissioned a church to be built over the site.  On September 13, 335, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was consecrated. And the following day, September 14, was designated to be the celebration of the feast of the finding and exaltation of the Cross.  The basilica of the Holy Sepulcher had been destroyed and rebuilt over and over again.  Until today it is regarded by Christians as the holiest site on earth. 

Our liturgy has kept until today the celebration of the ancient feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.  This gives us the opportunity to continue to meditate on the meaning of the cross of Jesus in our Christian living. Allow me to reflect on two important points: The cross as the symbol of a love that saves and the cross as constant reminder of a way of life conformed to that of Jesus.

Symbol of a Love that Saves.  A thousand and hundreds of years before Jesus embraced his cross, already God had manifested his saving love for his people through Moses.  The first reading (Nm 21:4b-9) recounts the event of Israel’s liberation from Egypt. The difficult journey in the desert was to purify the Israelites’ self-centered inclinations. In this reading we see them grumbling and rebelling against God and Moses because of the inconveniences they had to undergo in the desert. They had easily forgotten God’s promises. The result of this sin was a plague of serpents that poisoned them to death. This consequence brought them back to their senses and humbled them so as to plead to be saved from the serpents.  Moses prayed; and as God instructed him, he made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole.  Anyone bitten recovered as he looked at the bronze serpent.

This event prefigured the ultimate salvation of all people from the poison of sin through Christ.  As today’s gospel (Jn 3:13-17) has it: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (v. 14-15).  The Son of Man being lifted up points to the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. And this one sacrifice on the cross is a revelation of the depth, the width and the height of God’s love for his people. The cross of Jesus reminds us of God's act of love in Christ's sacrifice at Calvary, where he gave his life for us as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

When we look at the cross, we see the symbol of a love that saves. As we contemplate the cross, let us allow these words of the gospel to reverberate in our hearts: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him may not perish, but may have everlasting life” (v. 16).

Reminder of a Way of Life.  The cross is indeed a very significant symbol of Christianity. But it must not be reduced into ornaments that we place in our Churches, chapels, oratories, and rooms. The cross is not just a Christian accessory.  It is a Christian way of life.

In the second reading (Phil 2:6-10), St. Paul explains how Jesus emptied himself by becoming like us, human.  Jesus’ humility and obedience finds its ultimate expression in his acceptance of his death on the cross.  Somewhere else in the gospels, the Lord Jesus reminds his disciples thus:  "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt 16:24).

Just as our Lord emptied himself, we have to take up our own crosses by our acts of self-denial. Just as our Lord humbled himself, we have to take up our own crosses by learning the virtue of humility. Just as our Lord manifested his obedience to the Father even to death on the cross, we are asked to take up our crosses by making the will of God our priority.

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Mt 10:38). There is no Christianity without the cross then. St. Helena did everything in order to find the cross of Christ.  Our own search does not require digging into rubble and stones anymore. Maybe our invitation is really to have the courage to carry our crosses every day. It is to live out the meaning of the cross in our lives—humility, obedience to God, and self-sacrificing love. This is a way of life conformed to that of Jesus. This is the way of the cross.