The Holy Apostle Timothy; the Holy Venerable-Martyr Anastasius the Persian (628)
Colossians 1:2-6; Luke 16:10-15
Read Luke 16:10-15
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
In our gospel lesson today we are faced with the Lord’s question that if we are not faithful with what is another’s, who can give us our own? Brothers and sisters, if you take a moment to think about it, what can you actually reasonably consider your own? What can you actually point to that rightfully belongs to you?
The truth of the matter remains that, as St. Paul states, we don’t have anything that we didn’t receive or that wasn’t given to us. Despite the fact that we have worked to nurture our talents or capitalize on our opportunities, these very possibilities are a grace.
This relates is one of the greatest pitfalls in the spiritual life: thinking that money is ours in the same way that our soul is ours. Both are gifts and both are not ours by right, but our soul is “our own” in a way that money can never be. When we confuse this, we live in slavery instead of being free to follow our Lord and truly accept and receive what is actually ours.
St. Cyril of Alexandria writes:
Anyone may readily learn the meaning and view of the Savior’s words from what follows. He said, “If you have not been faithful in what is another’s, who will give you what is your own?” We again say that what is another’s the wealth we possess. We were not born with riches, but on the contrary, naked. We can truly affirm in the words of Scripture that “we neither brought anything into the world, nor can carry anything out.” …
Let those of us who possess earthly wealth open our hearts to those who are in need. Let us show ourselves faithful and obedient to the laws of God. Let us be followers of our Lord’s will in those things that are from the outside and not our own. Let us do this so that we may receive what is our own, that holy and admirable beauty that God forms in people’s souls, making them like himself, according to what we originally were.
Commentary on Luke, Homily 109.