Luke 12:32-48

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for you Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustable treasure in heaven that no thief can reach or moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You must be prepared, for at an hour yoiu do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant in charge of all his property. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

This is a long Gospel reading, and there’s a lot packed into it. I want to focus on what I believe are the main points of Jesus: know your priorities; be prepared; don’t be presumptuous.

“For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” Jesus has a lot to say about one’s relationship with wealth and possessions. Here He makes it very clear: God’s priorities are not the priorities of the world. What are our priorities, as those who claim Him as a Lord? If our priorities are our jobs, our wealth, even our families, then we have put our treasure in the things of this world. If our priority is doing the will of God in all things, then we have put our priority in Jesus and His kingdom. It’s very easy to get caught up in the cares of the world and to focus or priortize our responsibilities to those we’ve committed ourselves. It isn’t a bad thing to prioritize one’s family and providing for one’s family. But even this can be a distraction to the kingdom if we choose to side with family against Jesus. Many have faced that choice, and many have de-prioritized Jesus as a result. The Catholic way, of course, is to make one’s commitment to Jesus and one’s commitment to family the same commitment. This is what Catholic marriage is about: being Christ for the other and working together for the sake of each other’s salvation. How I treat my spouse is how I treat the Lord Jesus. But sometimes, our families, or some in our family, become an obstacle to a commitment to Jesus. There are still families who oppose a member’s wanting to enter priesthood or religious life. There are still families who will cut off brother, sister, mother, or father when they express their longing to become Christian. In such cases, it can be very difficult to know what to do. But in every case, we choose Jesus. It ought to be obvious that we choose Jesus over wealth or fame. But, even in theses cases, the temptation to align my self-image with how others see me can be so overwhelming that we set Jesus and our commitment to Him aside. Jesus gave everything He had for our sakes. We must not hesitate to do the same when called upon by Him. Wealth, in and of itself, is not an obstacle to the kingdom. But the achievment of and maintaining of wealth can be a life-long project, and can certainly lead to compromising our relationship with our Lord. Better to not even consider wealth as a goal or good. If one does become wealthy, it will be a happenstance that doesn’t define who one is, so that one will often be inspired to use his or her’s great wealth for the sake of the Church’s mission of proclaming the Gospel to all the world.

“You must be prepared, for at an hour yoiu do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Just as, when we see a tragic event unfold before us on the TV, we think, “That will never happen to us,” so, we think that Jesus will not return during our earthly venture. No, that is far off still, so there’ no need to panic or get worked-up about it. Well, perhaps there’s no reason to panic or get worked-up about it, but there is reason to be prepared for its eventually occurance, because Jesus said He would come again. If we take Him at His word on all other matters, we ought to take Him at His word on this one. He said that no one knows when the Son of Man will return. Therefore, the only sensible action to take is to be prepared for His return at all times. This doesn’t mean abandoning everything and going to a hill top to watch the clouds for His arrival. It does mean setting aside all things that are not useful for our transformation into one who reflects better the priorities of the Gospel and our status as those committed to following Him. How do we do that? First, by making Jesus the Lord of our life. His priorities become our priorities. The best part about this is that is that it frees us from the rat-race that the modern world has become. We need not be discouraged to downhearted when our dreams of success don’t come true, because our success is measured against eternity. Whatever we achieve in this temporal realm is a mere shadow of the glory that awaits us, regardless of how we’ve succeeded based on the world’s measure of success. Or, perhaps, in spite of it. Participating in the sacramental life of the Church. Reading God’s word for us in Scripture. Praying always. Service to others in Christ’s Name. These are the priorities of one who has his or her priorities centered on God. These are not things we do to earn our way into the kingdom. But they are loving responses to God’s grace, given to us for the sake of our salvation.

“Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing [His will].” No one, before God, is more important than anyone else. If we start thinking of ourselves as somehow more important, or more deserving of God’ grace than others, than we first of all sin against God’s justice (“all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”), and we also put ourselves at risk of presuming God’s forgiveness and grace, and no one can demand anything of God. All is grace. All is gift. We cannot presume His delay, for by doing so we presume His grace. We cannot presume we stand right with God, for wherever we stand before Him, it is on His terms and at His pleasure. Thanks be to God that He has made our salvation His pleasure. But we must freely choose Him, and in choosing Him, cannot then begin to convince ourselves that we’ve got the kingdom in the bag. It’s not lack of faith in the promises of Jesus, but lack of presumption in our own faithfulness, holiness, and perseverance. I trust Jesus! It’s myself I have trouble trusting. I don’t want to presume my salvation for my own soul’s sake. There’s a difference in having confidence in the promises of Jesus and in the grace He has given us, and preumption in our own faithfulness and in God’s will. We cannot presume that Christ’s return will be delayed and live as if there is no hurry in ordering our lives according to His priorities. In doing so, we risk losing our salvation or, at best, spending much time in purgatory. As for me, I’m glad there is a purgatory. I don’t presume to get it all right down here. But I hope to be beaten lightly, if necessary. Grace is free, but it is not cheap.

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” We have to recognize that much has been given to us. We have the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures. We have the message of Jesus in the Gospels. We have the teachings of St. Paul. We have the Church, the instrument of God’s revelation in Christ. We have the sacrament, the means by which God pours out His grace to us. We have the example of the saints, who offer us models of how to live the life of sanctity and service in Jesus’ Name. We have been given much, so much will be expected of us. Are we, this day, willing to stand before our Lord with confidence that all He has given us has been invested well in a life dedicated to living His will?

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.