Fortunate is this servant if his master, on coming home, finds him doing his work. Truly, I say to you, the master will put him
in charge of all his property. But it may be that the steward thinks, ‘My Lord delays in coming,’ and he begins to abuse the male
servants and the servant girls, eating and drinking and getting drunk. Then the master will come on a day he does not expect,
and at an hour he doesn’t know. He will cut him off, and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.
The servant who knew his master’s will, but did not prepare and do what his master wanted, will be soundly beaten;
but the one who does unconsciously what deserves punishment, shall receive fewer blows.
Much will be required of the one who has been given much, and more will be asked of the one who has been entrusted with more.

REFLECTION:
As members of the household of God we have been blessed with “immeasurable riches!”
The Gospel we have received is our inheritance. St. Paul reminds the Ephesians of the great mystery of gentiles (non-Jews)
to be beneficiaries of the salvation first promised to the Jews but now by God’s mercy offered to non-Jews.
To the benefit of salvation by grace is attached a responsibi­lity, namely,
to be responsible Stewards of the “immeasurable riches of Christ.” Thus, Jesus admonishes his disciples to be wise stewards.
Who is the wise ste­ward? He is the one who awaits conscientiously labors for the Master whose return he awaits.
The unfaithful steward, on the other hand, is the abusive one who takes advantage of others and lives as though there would be no reckoning.
Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that there will be a reckoning at the end of time.
Lines from the poet Emily Dickenson expresses very well the sobering truth that stewards are accountable.
She writes: “The mills of God grind exceeding slow, but they grind exceeding small.”

© Copyright Bible Diary 2020