Summary of Tomorrow’s Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon the gospel of the day, and we shall learn from it: First, all that we owe to God; Second, that we are supremely irrational in responding so ill to the designs of God in regard to us. We will then make the resolution: First, to make use of all that we have and of all that we are only in accordance with the good pleasure of God; Second, to infuse into the service of God and our own salvation at least as much zeal as the world infuses into its search after riches, honors, and pleasures. Our spiritual nosegay shall be these two sentences of the gospel: “Give an account of thy stewardship. The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” (Luke 16:2)
Eight Sunday after Pentecost
The Gospel according to St. Luke, 16:1-9.
“At that time Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable: There was a certain rich man who had a steward; and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said to him: How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for now thou canst be steward no longer. And the steward said within himself: What shall I do, because my lord taketh away from me the stewardship? To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed. I know what I will do, that when I shall be removed from the stewardship they may receive me into their houses. Therefore, calling together every one of his lord’s debtors, he said to the first: How much dost thou owe my lord? But he said: A hundred barrels of oil. And he said to him: Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then he said to another: And how much dost thou owe? Who said; A hundred quarters of wheat. He said to him: Take thy bill, and write eighty. And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely; for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.”
