8th Sunday after Pentecost 4.8.19 Confidence
The steward is praised for his ability to use what he had to
advance his own cause. To apply this in a spiritual light, we have a lot which
we can use to our own advantage spiritually.
We have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the sacraments,
sacramentals, the Liturgy, the intercession of the saints, the workings of grace.
We have all these things going for us, yet we still can think we are all alone
and unaided.
At any time we can invoke God's presence and He will come to
our aid, enabling us to conquer any sort of opposition or obstacle.
We will be strong enough and wise enough to find the best way
forward.
We can take this opportunity to ask for an increase in our
confidence – to be more confident of God's help; and of our own ability to work
with that help.
When fear restricts us we miss many opportunities for good.
They say that evil flourishes when good men do nothing. Well, there is a lot of
‘nothing’ going on in our Church.
As to confidence in God we have the power of prayer and the
sacraments to make Him present to us. We have thousands of years of miracles
and wonders, with God showing His ability and His will to advance His plans for
us.
As to confidence in ourselves, as the Psalm puts it: With my
God I can scale any wall (Ps 17 (18),29).
If we are Moses going before Pharaoh, or David confronting
Goliath, or John the Baptist correcting Herod – at different times we have to
do difficult things, even dangerous things.
God is at our side always.
He can work miracles directly to clear the way for us; or He
can work through us, putting the miracle inside us, as it were.
This is His usual preferred method.
So we participate in His work. We solve our own problems
with God's help and in union with Him all the way.
Many will try to sort it out themselves, a kind of rugged individualism
which is really pride.
We find many stories where God has used people who may not
have seemed adequate for the role: Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David, Esther, the
Apostles, St Paul etc.
God values humility, the recognition that we cannot get
anywhere without Him. Once we do recognize that we can make great progress.
When someone dies young people will say, What a waste - they had the world at their feet; they could
have achieved so much.
Just so, when someone lives the full measure of years but
never connects with the will of God -
what a waste of potential.
We have so much at our disposal in terms of grace; we can
receive it; we can make it go to work.
The Epistle tells us we are sons of God, not just servants.
We have a share in God’s royal dignity. We can do so much,
if only we stay anchored in His will.
We can be easily distracted or waylaid, lacking confidence
in God, and in ourselves.
The steward shows us the way. Use what we have, and see it
multiply.
Who knows what graces the Holy Spirit might yet release in
us if we let Him?
You have to be in it to win it, the
saying goes. We have to be engaged in the search for God to find Him fully. If
we are receptive to His initiatives, anything can happen (cf the Incarnation!)
For some things God waits on us to ask, and if we leave
things undone He might leave them undone too, until we work out that He wants
our engagement.
God wants us to call on Him for help, while being prepared
to act ourselves, trusting in Him to supply what we cannot.
In this mode of operating, we can make our way to eternal
life.
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