God is faithful to His promises

19th Sunday C
(Ideas for sharing the Words of God)
A God who is faithful to His promises.
In The first reading the people of Israel look back at their history and discover that God has always been faithful. And this gives them courage and hope for the future.
The second reading speaks of Abraham and Sarah, models of faith in God. The heeded the voice of God and responded. They believed in his promise even when appearances suggested the contrary (s. The Daily Missal).
Let us listen to the powerful words of saint Paul summarizing the faith of Abraham and Sarah.
"1 Brethren, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
8. It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call (...) to set out without knowing where he was going.
10. He looked forward to the well-founded city, designed and built by God.
11. It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise was faithful to it.
12. Because of this, there came from one man, and one who already had the mark of death on him, descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore which cannot be counted."
Look at the models of faith, can we ask ourselves "Am I doubting God's promise, especially in difficult situations and challenges? Have I given up sometimes?" If the answer is yes, reflect on our ancestors' experiences of faith gain and again so that our faith will be strengthened.

Going to the today's Gospel, let us meditate on the thoughts and actions of the unwise steward. In the east, normally, the steward was a slave, yet he had power on all the other slaves. He ran most of the business in the house. However, the unwise steward in the Gospel misbehaved in two things.

Firstly, he thinks that as long as his master is away, he can do whatever he likes, he did not mind that the day of reckoning must come. Many a time, we divide life into two parts. In one part we consider God's presence, that is when we go to church, when we pray and take part of church activities. In the other part, we do not mind his presence at all. That is when we go to market, doing our business. That is when we are ready to tell lie to gain some benefit.
We forget that there is not part of our life that the master is away. We are working and living in our master's presence. God is here and He is in the market. God is there when we do good for others, He is also there when we cheat one another.

Secondly, the unwise steward is thinking that he has enough time to put things in orders before the master comes. We, too, we are thinking that we are still young and strong, we will not die now. We have enough time to repent and to settle things with others and with God before we die. But be ready and be wise, we never know what will happen tomorrow. We only know that God never deceives us but always rewards more than what faithful servant and wise steward deserve.

Reflecting on the words of God today, let us imitate Abraham and Sarah to live in God's presence and carry out his words in our daily life, so that at the end of the day we will be found faithfully doing our tasks, and be rewarded as God has promised.