Stewardship and Faith: A Catholic Reflection
Introduction: The Watchmaker God
When God created the world. The deists make an assumption they call God the architect or they call him the watchmaker God. Which means essentially that God put everything in the world into motion and just left it, left it alone, and things just transpire naturally and continue to proceed as God has set. The the the, the, the watch or the plan to go. And it's for us to make the best of it as we can. We know this is false because obviously God is omnipresent. He is still very much present. He is the only source of life. He is the only source of creation. He is the only He's the only thing, the only being that is absolutely necessary for the existence of everything else. But God also uses human means, or he uses material means as instruments to fulfill His will to complete what he designed and wants for us. He doesn't just simply leave things to his own power keeping things together, but he insists that he there are instruments that maintain his will throughout creation and so on this earth, he puts stewards upon the upon the world. And those are humanity.
Humanity as Stewards
Every man, every last one of us is supposed to be a steward of the goods of this world. So as a result, we have to understand what that means for Adam and Eve. That was a very clear cut question because they received directly from God their mission as well as they had a relationship with him that the that the Bible describes as being as Adam walking in the evenings with God in the garden. For us, it's a little more difficult because we have original sin. Darkening our soul, we are not as able to see the spiritual realities in everything. And therefore our labors are, shall we say, clouded by our own selfishness, our greed, our materialism, and any number of other vices which obfuscate the work that we should be performing as stewards. We should be able to perform the role of steward perfectly. But there is simple self-interest which gets in the way.
The Purpose of Creation
In the spiritual exercises, St. Ignatius. The first meditation that we do is based upon the question, the catechism. Why did God make you? The answer: God made me to know, love and serve Him on this Earth so I can be happy with him in the next world. That's it. Very simple. But the very next meditation that we do is a conclusion of that. Why did God create the rest of the world? And the answer is God created the rest of the world so that we may be able to find him through his creation. All creatures are at the service of God. Every creation, every piece of creation belongs to him. And we are its simple stewards. We are the caretakers. We are the ones who are here on Earth to be able to utilize the goods of this Earth to serve God.
Good Stewards vs. Bad Stewards
Saint Paul points out that we can either be slaves of the flesh or we can choose to be the children of God. Because that really is the difference between being a good steward and a bad steward. A good steward understands his role and performs it because he is a child of God. He doesn't want to be a simple steward. He wants to be an actual heir to the kingdom. The only way to do so is to serve God in everything, serve the master in every aspect of his life, to be able to receive the full benefit of that adoption. To be able to call God father. That is the purpose for which we've been created.
The Challenge of Materialism
The problem is. We're not very good at that. We tend to be very materialistic. We tend to be a little too obsessed with this world. And we tend to. Drag ourselves away from the vision of being the sons of God beside because we want to be happy here on Earth. And this is what our Lord is warning us about in this gospel. This gospel actually creates a lot of confusion because it looks like our Lord is blessing sinfulness. He's praising the steward who has defrauded his master. And he's telling us to make friends with the mammon of iniquity. So how can we understand that?
Understanding the Gospel's Message
Well, we have to understand to whom he was addressing it. He was addressing it to the Sadducees, Pharisees, scribes, Herodians, etc. The different factions of the Jewish people of the Jewish authorities at the time who were either trying to buddy up to the Romans like the Herodians trying to utilize power for their benefit or they were like the Sadducees who were very jealous of their power and the fact that they were the high priests and they are the ones who are supposed to be dictating the law to the people or the Pharisees who are materialistic have been very perfect in the way that they observe the law, but also were cruel and hard-hearted and had no concept of how they were supposed to be able to be true servants of God or representatives of him. So he was warning all of them about how they performed the law because all of them were materialistic in one way or the other. Every last one of them was not performing the law for the right reasons. All of them were interested in the law and in the prophets and in the Scriptures for the wrong purposes.
The Mammon of Iniquity
So he's saying essentially, if this is what you're after, if it is glory, if it is power, if it is authority, if it is whatever that pertains to this world, go for it. The Mammon of iniquity will happily be friends with you. But don't pretend that you're my friend at the same time. Don't pretend that you're doing this for God. If that's the world we choose, if you choose to be the slave of your flesh, as Saint Paul says, if you choose to make the mammon of iniquity, your friend, go for it. They will receive you into everlasting dwellings. Now, that's not a good thing, because everlasting dwellings in that context means hell. If you are a friend of this world, if you make this world your home, you will find your eternal dwellings in hell.
Choosing God's Inheritance
If instead you choose the inheritance of God, you'll be a faithful steward of this world, and they will have no power over you because you will be serving the function and with the authority of God over it, and you will find God in it. And that is what we must focus on. It's easy for us to lose sight of that. And unfortunately, this is something that, shall we say, the mainstream church has lost much sight of too. The document about Him and Spears in Vatican II is specifically about the relationship between the church and the world. And it gets a lot of things wrong. The very first dogma, the very first opening speech by John the 23rd, was to open the doors and windows of the church and let in the fresh air of the world. We cannot make friends with the Mammon of iniquity and save our souls.
The Choice Between Two Worlds
You can be the stewards like in the gospel today. Or we can be the true sons of God. There is no middle path. There is no befriending this world. There is no trying to stay on both sides. We cannot look for perfect happiness here and perfect happiness in heaven. Anyone who's ever tried to get into a canoe knows that that is true. Put one foot on the pier, one foot in the canoe. The longer you're in that position, the more inevitable it is. You're going to fall in the water. We must choose God. We must choose the true stewardship of this world, where we are seeing and serving God in all things. Every creature, every particularity of our lives. And rather, we must have a spirit of conquering this world. We must become missionaries and go out into the world. But only by taking Christ with us.
Taking Christ Into the World
Remind us. We must not let the spirit in. Oh, sorry. We must not let the world in. But we must take Christ out. Take him out into the world. Convert souls, save the world. But the only way we can do that is by seeing him in all creation. Our families and our homes. And all the good things of this world. We are supposed to enjoy this world. But never to the point that it dominates us or controls us or drags us away from him, where the world or any pleasure or delight within the world starts to become an end unto itself. Or it is so powerful or so attractive that we start to prefer it to God, even subconsciously. This is where we become the bad steward. The powers and the delights of this world should have no control over us.
Practicing Temperance
So let us work on the virtue of temperance. All things in the service of God. Finding God in all things. Even in the insanity of the world. Even in the chaos of society around us. Even in the nonsense we hear from in all corners. Always find God. And if somebody is spouting blasphemies. Rather than letting it really bother us and foster hatred within us or whatever else, see the image of Christ crucified, begging for that man's soul. When we have to deal with mosquitoes. Yes. Even mosquitoes are somehow revealing God to us. I don't know how, but we know that is true. We take it on faith. We must see God in that. And that is it's an act of faith. It can make very little sense to us on a logical level, but it is an act of faith, whether God is easily visible in the splendors and the beauties of nature. Or whether he's obscured by the violence and hatred of what men do in the world. Or whatever else in between. We must bring God with us and we must see Him, and we must serve Him according to the fashion with which it is presented to us.
Conclusion: Faithful Stewards
We are stewards. And let us work that stewardship faithfully and well so that we can be true sons of God. True heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. And through the temperance that we practice, may be able to enter into the eternal dwelling, the everlasting dwelling of our inheritance in heaven, and be eternally united with him.