GOSPEL READING Luke 12: 32 - 48
32 "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33 Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35 "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning,
36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks.
37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.
38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!
39 But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.
40 You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour."
41 Peter said, "Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?"
42 And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
43 Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing.
44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.
45 But if that servant says to himself, `My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,
46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the unfaithful.
47 And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating.
48 But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.
Commentary
There was a grade four girl student named Sharmaine. Her story is quite a simple one. One day the teacher said she will be checking the top of their desks and whoever she finds to have the cleanest desk will receive a gift at the end of the quarter. Sharmaine promised everybody that she will win the contest. “I will be hailed as the one with the cleanest table at the end of the quarter”. “That can’t be” said her classmates “You have the dirtiest and disarranged study table in all this class.” Sharmaine answered “Then I will clean it the day before the checking.”
“What if the teacher inspect the day before?”
“Then I will clean it two days before.”
“What if two days before?”
“Then I will clean it three days before the inspection.”
“What if four days before?”
“Then I’ll clean it everyday.”
From that day on Sharmaine made a commitment to keep the table ready for the inspection day. At the end, Sharmaine won the prize. Commitment is a product of uncertainty. We are uncertain of how everything will end. My father’s commitment to my Mom is a good example of how uncertainty of future preceded the virtue. Asked why he did leave my Mom for 20 years he said “It’s simple, I just say ‘just for today I will not leave you dear’ because we can never know what will happen tomorrow but today you can decide what will happen and for 20 years of saying ‘just for today…, just for today’ I did not even noticed we are twenty years now.”
What if you know already the ending of a TV show or a reality show. You will not watch the daily episodes anymore. Tomorrow the season finale of Lost will be aired in AXN. No one knows the ending so any of the fans will still watch everything. If I knew that James Reid is gonna win the PBB Teen Clash, I don’t think I will still be faithful in watching it. I will never regret missing a day because I already know what the end’s gonna be like. We were never thought to read the story books at the back because there will be no more excitement and less excitement brings less commitment. Commitment makes a healthy steward. Commitment makes a faithful Christian.
Jesus in today’s Gospel taught us that those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes are truly blessed. We have to be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. If we know the exact date of the second coming then there will be no commitment to do good works because like Sharmaine we will only clean ourselves the day before. Everyone will go to confession just the day before, we will all remember to do good works the day before. But Jesus would like to know who are the faithful stewards. He did not tell us the exact hour, He just told us to be vigilant every single moment of our lives. If there is certainty of the second coming then there is no regret but just the same, there will be no commitment too.
I heard of a man who never spent enough time with his wife. He never knew that his wife has terminal illness already. She died without him. He is in a corporate meeting during that time. When he went to the burial all he has is regret. He just wish he could have spent more time. If he only knew. But nobody knows when we will die. It is really saddening that many of us doesn’t even know the exact date of birth. If many doesn’t even know the very thing every individual should know about them then how much more is the date of death?
Jesus said “provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.” We may regret that one day we just labored for something that is not necessary when we die or when Jesus come again. When the Lehman Brothers were bankrupted September 15 of 2008, there were people who almost get into insanity. There was massive shockwaves and panic buying in all of America. Why? Because a lot of people depended on treasures that can be destroyed and pleasures that can turn into old. Commitment to faithfulness is a heavenly treasure that does not fail. You know what? There is about zillion of cells in our body. Every human physique is made up of cells. Heaven is made up of faith. Faith is the single fundamental building block of heaven. It is not money. It is not fame. It is not bank account. Faith can only happen if a person commit to it. When there is uncertainty of what is to come he can only depend on his faith. The second reading enumerated the stories of patriarchs to faith.
I had a professor when I was in college whose name is Dra. Evelyn Ascunsion. She and her husband own a school, they are good people, they are happy, they are wealthy. One day they were robbed. Instead of getting so upset and say “WHY ME, WE ARE UPRIGHT!” She just told us in class that “You know class, that is life. You can never be sure.” Coming from a person who was robbed just two hours ago before she went to our class. She have all the rights to complain that they don’t deserve that kind of experience but no. She still smiled. Because she made a commitment to store up treasures in heaven and those she stored cannot be stolen from her.
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