Honesty

September 23, 2007

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done! Amos 8:7

For this I was appointed preacher and apostle — I am speaking the truth, I am not lying —, teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 1 Timothy 2:7

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? Luke 16:11-12

Piety

Let us pray: Lord, help us to give you an honest and full account of our stewardship. Guide us to live lives that will take our responsibility for stewardship of the world seriously. Show us how to live out your commandments to be better than we are. Amen.

Study

“What you see is what you get.” Pretense is trying to appear to be what you are not.

“Fake it until you make it.” That is a 12-step saying that tells us you become what you are doing. Our choices in life make us who we are.

How to be a clone of Christ is what piety is all about. What you intend is what God sees about us. We are created in the image and the likeness of Christ. Baptism brought our birth as brothers and sisters of Christ. Love activates the presence of God to us. Our journey into Christ requires of us that we live the fullness of Christ in all we say and do. Christian says for most people that we are like Christ. Piety makes us a real Christ. Piety brings a lifetime of study of the meaning of honesty. We are called to be better than we are.

Partial offerings of self are first steps in the following of Christ.

Trying to be heart and soul in all we do is the task of a lifetime. It requires study of each day as it happens to see how we made Christ real in our choices.

Appearances drive the children of this world. The approval addiction makes youngsters give into peer pressure. The saint has an attraction of Christ’s life. Living up to what our heart is teaching us about love brings an end to selfishness. The call to love our neighbor as ourselves brings wonderful changes in how we approach life. To push the interests of our neighbor ahead of our own is where we find the nitty-gritty of love. It takes genuine study of life and of what we are doing to bring to the fore what Christ would do in our shoes. He gave more than we could humanly ask of another. He gave all of himself to us in so many ways. The needy person of each day brings us Christ. What we do for the least one of our brothers and sisters is what we do for Christ and what makes us into true Christs of today. We are able by how we measure out our time and energy and resources to make Christ real in what we are doing. When I only give what is asked of me I am hardly ever giving an updated version of the Christ of the Gospel. We are able to give Christ and to live Christ when we give more than what is asked of us.

Action

Our actions need to be from the heart. Giving all we have to give in the least actions of our day makes the ordinary into the extraordinary of the kingdom of God. The Hidden Life grace is what gives all of us a chance to be like Christ in our lives. To fill up the moment we are living with all we have to offer that fits the job at hand is what makes saints. We are called to be as perfect as our heavenly Father who created the least things of our world with the same perfection he gave to his son. The death of Christ on the cross makes God’s love possible in all we do as we take up the crosses of discipleship to follow Christ.

We serve God and not mammon when we give all of ourselves to the task before us. If we are faithful to what we can do for the least one of our brothers and sisters, we shall be faithful to God in all we do. Give in good measure and running over. When we have given more than another can take, we will know we have given Christ in who we are.