August 24, 2014 – Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Is 22: 19-23; Ps 138: 1-3, 6, 8; Rom 11: 33-36; Mt 16: 13-20
Tucked away in the middle of the second reading (from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans) is one of the jewels of stewardship. Paul asks his readers “…who has given the Lord anything that he may be repaid?” This echoes that splendid verse from Psalm 116: “How can I repay the Lord for all the great good done for me?”
This is the stewardship attitude — the stewardship approach to life. We recognize that all we have and all we are and all the blessings we receive come to us from God. It is a bit of a misnomer to even say that we are “repaying” God because we cannot. It is our slight way of thanking God.
And that is the point of Paul’s statement as Paul indicates that God cannot be outdone in generosity. That is another essential point in understanding stewardship. God does not need what we may offer in return, but we need to make that offering — an offering of our very being, of our time, our talent, and our treasure.
In the Gospel, Jesus poses the question, “Who do you say I am?” This question is as much for us as it was for the Apostles at that time. If we truly believe that Jesus is our Savior, we need to live lives that acknowledge that. That is what committing to lives of stewardship does.
