25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Faithful in a Very Little

A little over ten years ago, Pope Francis presented his Encyclical Laudato Si’ as a worldwide wake up call to help humanity understand that all people are part of one family where the Earth is our common home.  It was a call to protect God's creation for future generations, to embrace a lifestyle change for our own good, and to take care of those who are poor and vulnerable. The gifts we have been given in this life do not belong to ourselves alone. They belong to everyone. All good things come from God, and we are who we are because of Him. We are called to mission, to stewardship.

Sadly, with all the other problems facing us, it is easy to put the environment and global warming on the back burner while the Earth continues to get hotter.  Too many people have been fooled into complacency or perhaps we have forgotten that the Kingdom of God is not some future paradise, but right here in the places where we find ourselves and among the people with whom we come face to face every day.

The "dishonest" servant of this week's Gospel takes his place among so many others found in Jesus' parables - with the five foolish virgins, the wedding guest who gets thrown out of the wedding banquet for lack of a proper attire or the rich young man too wrapped up in himself to answer the call, just to name a few. These are not bad people.  They are just those who didn't prepare well, those who didn't prepare at all, those who "squandered the master's property" or those who may have thought they had a better plan.

The invitation to discipleship is a call to build up the Kingdom in the here and now.  It is at once both Gift and Challenge and we are expected to translate this gift into the kind of faith, hope and love that we need to refashion our world.  We have a responsibility to use the things of the earth as well as things we have earned in responsible ways because we belong to a community of human beings - in family, community, parish, nation and world. 

The parable should make us uneasy if most of our energy and time are focused on our own future and material security, and less on what is valuable in God's eyes. We would do well to heed the warning of Amos in our first reading:  "Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done!"

Jesus teaches stewardship and accountability at every turn. He urges us to be concerned for the needs of others. His challenge is that we use God's gifts wisely and well. And He gives us the power to do all of this. At the heart of our faith is The Spirit who leads us to acknowledge that it is God's love and goodness that provides so abundantly for all of our needs. At the center of our love for God is the challenge to protect and share this gift with our brothers and sisters.  And the at the core of our hope is the promise that if we are faithful in a little we will indeed be faithful in much.