Take Inventory and Invest

Take Inventory and Invest

Twenty-Eighth Week of Year II     Thursday   October 13, 2016

 (Begin reading Ephesians)

The Responsorial Psalm calls us to exult in the revelation of the Good News: “The Lord has made known his salvation.” (Psalm 98).

Ephesians 1: 1-10 is a hymn of exultation in the Good News:

[God] has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning…  that he would bring everything together under Christ as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

We are stewards of this secret, the plan of God revealed in Jesus and to us. We are the guardians of the Good News, charged to maintain it intact. And we are the bearers of this Good News to others, charged to make it known throughout the world.

What is this News? It is that God:

• has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing;

• has chosen us in Christ to be holy and blameless;

• to live in love in his presence;

• has destined us for adoption as his children;

• has freely bestowed his grace on us in the Beloved;

• has lavished on us redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins;

• and has made known to us the mystery of his plan to bring everything in heaven and on earth together under Christ as head.

Have we, as faithful “stewards of God’s mysteries,” and “stewards of the manifold grace of God,”¹ taken careful inventory of the treasure entrusted to us? Have we absorbed the seven statements above? Made ourselves familiar with their content? Are we familiar enough with the truth entrusted to us to “invest” it wisely? To use it to bring about the reign of God on earth?

Isn’t this what stewardship is all about? Managing what has been put into our care? Knowing it well enough to manage it well? Wouldn’t we be conscientious about doing this if we were managing another person’s property? So are we able to proclaim and explain faithfully, “The Lord has made known his salvation”?

Would Jesus say to us what he says in Luke 11: 47-54: to those formed in the knowledge of God’s laws:

Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge! You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering!

We are known to be Christians. Does our lack of interest in our faith keep others from looking into it? Does our lack of enthusiasm discredit the truth entrusted to us?

¹1Corinthians 4:1-2;  1Peter 4:10.

Initiative: Be a conscientious steward. Study and reflect on your faith until you are enthusiastic about it!