DAILY MEDITATION: "The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones"

Liturgical day: Saturday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel text (Lk 16,9-15): Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him. And he said to them, “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”

"The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones"

Fr. Joaquim FORTUNY i Vizcarro
(Cunit, Tarragona, Spain)

Today, Jesus speaks again with authority: He uses the "so I tell you", that has a particular force, as if dealing with a new doctrine. God wants everyone to be saved and to come to keep knowledge of the truth (cf. 1Tim 2, 4); God wants us saints and today He points out necessary traits which will help us to reach holiness and have the “true goods”: faithfulness to small things, authenticity and never to forget God knows our hearts.

Faithfulness to small things falls within our reach. Our days are usually formed by what we call as “very normal things”: the same job, the same people, some pious practices, our family... And it is in these ordinary realities where we must fulfill ourselves as persons and grow in holiness. “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones” (Lk 16, 10). We must do all things well, with upright intention and a sincere desire to please God, our Father; when we do if for love, it has a greater value and prepare us for the “true goods”. How well did St. Josemaria express it!: “Have you seen how that imposing building was built? One brick upon another. Thousands. But, one by one. And bags of cement, one by one. And blocks of stone, each of them insignificant compared with the massive whole. And beams of steel. And men working, the same hours, day after day... Have you seen how that imposing building was built?... By dint of little things!.”

It can help us to have the right intention to carefully make, every evening, our examination of conscience without ever forgetting that God sees everything, even the most hidden thoughts, just as we learnt with our catechism, and that the important thing is to please always our Father God, whom we have to serve with love, bearing well in mind that “no servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other” (Lk 16, 13). Don't never forget: “Only God is God” (Benedict XVI).

Source: evangeli.net