Our readings today, the first from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans and the second from Saint Luke’s Gospel, come together quite nicely to complement each other, for both speak about how we use the gifts and the responsibilities that God has entrusted to us, and how we must exercise them with wisdom, zeal, and a sense of mission—a sense of being sent out to do something special for the Kingdom of God.
In the first reading, Paul is bringing his long letter to the Romans toward its conclusion. You must remember once again that he wrote this letter to the Romans before even visiting them, which is quite contrary to how he normally did things. Usually, he would visit a place and then write a letter to the people he had visited. This time, it was the other way around.
He brings this letter to its conclusion by expressing confidence and affection for them. Listen to what he says: “I am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another.” That is Saint Paul’s way of saying: you already know the faith; you are mature Christians.
Yet he also explains why he still writes so boldly—because he has a divine calling and mission to remind them of what matters most. He describes himself as “a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles,” offering them—those very people—like a holy sacrifice to God. His priestly language here is very powerful. The offering is not bread and wine, but people whose hearts are converted and made holy by the Holy Spirit.
He reminds the Romans that everything he has done—his preaching, his missionary journeys, his miracles—has all been accomplished by Christ through him, but always by Christ, not by his own power. And he reveals this deep missionary zeal: “I aspire to proclaim the Gospel not where Christ has already been named.”
This shows Paul’s passion to go beyond what was familiar—to bring the Gospel to those who have never heard it—fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah: “Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.”
Saint Paul teaches the Roman Christians, and all of us by extension, that our faith is not meant to stay comfortable and contained. We are entrusted, my brothers and sisters, with a mission. We have all been given beautiful gifts, and we need to use those gifts boldly to spread the Gospel—always giving glory to God rather than extolling ourselves.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about the dishonest servant. This parable often confuses people because it seems that Jesus is praising dishonesty—but that is not the case. The steward is about to lose his job for wasting his master’s goods. Knowing he is in trouble, he acts quickly and cleverly, reducing the debts of his master’s clients, hoping they will help him later.
When the master commends him, he is not praising his corruption; he is admiring his prudence, his shrewdness. The key line that Jesus gives us is this: “The master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently, for the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.”
Jesus is saying to us: look how much effort worldly people put into securing temporary things—things that pass away. If only the children of light, believers, my disciples, were as energetic, creative, and strategic in pursuing the things of God—the Kingdom that is eternal.
My brothers and sisters, think of it: we are all part of Jesus’s team, continuing to establish his eternal Kingdom in the hearts of men—the Kingdom that begins here and now within the Church, his Kingdom on earth, and ultimately the Kingdom to come in Paradise forever.
Jesus calls us to be spiritually shrewd—to act decisively, wisely, and resourcefully in serving God’s Kingdom, not to be passive or naive. For we are in a spiritual battle that extends far beyond the imagination of the worldly.
Let us be prudent and shrewd in cultivating our holiness and our zeal. And, like Saint Paul, let us go out into the world to be Jesus’s light and salt.
May Almighty God give you the strength to do so through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Francis.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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