Squanderers! In the gospel of Luke, chapter 15, we are introduced to the Prodigal Son who squanders his inheritance on a life of dissipation and then Jesus tells us a parable at the beginning of chapter 16 about a steward who squanders the property entrusted to him. Perhaps each of us, at one time or another, have been guilty of being squanderers. We waste our time, talents and resources on passing things that matter little in the greater scheme of eternal life. We spend our life on ourselves and our selfish pursuits. We store up treasure for ourselves but we “are not rich in what matters to God.” (Luke 12,21) Many people in our world today live according to the philosophy that, “it is my life, I can do what I want to with it.” We have forgotten a basic truth: our life is not our own. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” (1Cor 6,19f) “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Rom 14,7) Our life is not our own, it is a gift that has been entrusted to us and we are stewards of that gift of life. One day we will have to give an accounting of our stewardship when God will ask of us, “Prepare a full account of your stewardship.” (Luke 16,2)

We are all stewards of life. “Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.” (1Cor 4,1) Life is a mystery of God. “In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17,28) Life is a gift, a trust that is given to us. “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 6,23) We are given the raw stuff of life and we are meant to cooperate with God’s grace and bring that life to perfection. A well lived life is one that bears fruit in abundance. “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Jn 10,10) Jesus is the way to eternal, abundant life. (Jn 14,66) “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” (Jn 17,3) Only in a personal relationship with God, the Father, through Jesus, the Son in the Holy Spirit can we have true life. Jesus tells his disciples, “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” (Jn 6,57) and, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” (Jn 6,53) The good steward is a servant of Christ Jesus and uses his gifts of time, talent and treasure to serve others in communal life.
In the parable of the steward, the steward is commended for being prudent. He trades things, money and commodities, for relationships. He realizes that people are more important than things. We can’t serve both God and mammon, we must serve Christ Jesus by serving the least of our brothers and sisters. We can’t buy our way into heaven, but we can love our way there. “If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1Jn 4,20f)

To be good stewards we must not squander our lives but use the time that we have wisely to grow in relationship with God. From the beginning, God has asked one thing of us: holiness. “For I, the Lord, am your God; and you shall make and keep yourselves holy, because I am holy.” (Lev 11,44) And, “but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, “Be holy because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1,15f) How much time do you spend on holiness? Personal holiness should be our greatest concern. The good steward is holy and seeks the will of God in all things. It seems like a little thing but we might one day find that it frees us to do greater things in love.