Squanderers!  In the beginning of the 16th chapter of the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells us a parable 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)  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 and we are stewards of life’s mysteries.  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.  “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.  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 in the gospel of Luke, the crafty steward is commended for being prudent.  He trades things, money and commodities, for relationships.  He realizes that people are more important than things.  Jesus tells his disciples, “Make friends for yourself with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” (Lk 16,9)  Certainly the most important relationship we have in life is with God, our Creator and loving Father.  We enter into that relationship through a relationship with Jesus who is the visible face of the invisible God.  We can’t serve both God and mammon.  We must place our relationship with God above all other things.  We serve God by serving Christ in a life of discipleship and 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 we spend on holiness?  We spend a lot of time taking care of our own needs, eating, drinking, sleeping, working, and entertaining ourselves but we spend very little time growing in our relationship with God.  Personal holiness should be our greatest concern.  It is the small things that we do every day to be faithful in our relationship with God that prove our stewardship.  “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones;” (Lk 16,10)  We are given a small amount of time in this life to grow into a trustworthy steward of the mysteries of our life in Christ.  Don’t squander that precious time with careless living.