I will make that sacrificial donation to charity

by Father Steven Reilly, LC | Source: Catholic.net

Luke 16: 9-15

Introductory Prayer:

Father in heaven, I come to you today to praise and worship you. In my faith, I reach out to you, knowing that you love me and are leading me to heaven. I trust in your mercy and boundless love.

Petition:

Lord, help me to break the disordered attachments in my life.

1. Earning Trust:

Parents know well what this means! Discovering that your teenage child's story about being at a friend's house studying was just that ó a story ó makes for a very unpleasant realization. Trust has been broken. After the grounding takes effect, the speech is then delivered: Here's what you do if you want to earn back our trust Certainly the family car won't be lent out again until progress in the small things has been seen. That's the message Jesus has for us today. Our sins are like the trust-breakers of the teenage kid. They show we aren't ready for God's greatest gifts, so we have to start with the small things. Each grace we respond to opens the door to receiving another grace. If we are trustworthy in very small matters, we can be trusted with the greater. Following through on the everyday graces will someday lead to the grace of graces: the Beatific Vision.

2. God and/or Mammon:

Part of earning trust with God is getting our priorities straight. Taking a God-AND-mammon approach to life is similar to trying to say the rosary while watching television. The Hail Mary's may come out, but they do so with as much reflection as is put into breathing. We simply can't have our cake and eat it too. Foolishly entertaining any bad habits (our personal version of mammon) that erode our commitment shows God that we are not spiritually mature enough to be fully trusted. On the other hand, when we take a determined step to break these attachments, we make a big step forward. God must come first!

3. Human Eyes See Only Part of the Story:

Naturally, this effort to live a God-centered life is going to generate mixed reactions. The Pharisees scorn Jesus for this: To them, he seems totally naive about money. Like them, if we see things only from a merely human perspective, big chunks of reality elude us. Jesus is the one who has the complete picture. We can trust him completely to lead us in the right direction. We won't need to hedge our bets with human props for our sense of security.

Conversation with Christ:

Lord Jesus, thank you for helping me to realize

that your grace is more important than anything

I could ever have in this world.

Break the hold of mammon in my life

so that I might serve you with greater purity of intention.

Resolution:

I will make that sacrificial donation to charity that I have been putting off.

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