Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
November 10, 2023
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111023.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings are about spiritual wealth, stewardship, and Godly generosity.
Paul starts us off by proclaiming that the wealth/riches of salvation belong to ALL humanity. He presents himself as a unique “steward “ of those riches to the Gentiles.
But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you,
Romans 15:15-16
because of the grace given me by God
to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles
in performing the priestly service of the Gospel of God,
so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable,
sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Our Gospel gives us a second interpretation of “stewardship” in the parable the wily steward. This fella’ gets called on the carpet for squandering his employer’s resources. Pink slip time!
So the steward calls in some of the debtors and reduces their debt by the amount of his own commission. By doing this, he hopes to make some friends to support him in his impending unemployment.
Many years ago, there was a Talbot’s outlet in the Franklin Mills Mall in Northeast Philly. You could get an amazing deal on the clearance items. But you got an even better deal if you went to a certain cashier for your checkout.
He was a tall, flamboyant and loudly funny guy. If a price tag was missing on an item, you got it virtually for free. He would make outlandish comments like, “Oh, honey, this isn’t your color so let’s discount it 50%.” If you bought two of the same item, he might announce,”Two for one today”, charging for only one. He was a living example of the Biblical steward! Over time, he developed a devoted buying community – those who had learned the secret of why people waited in his long line!
In today’s parable, Jesus isn’t advocating that we cheat our employers. The parable isn’t really about that at all. It is about the way Jesus wants his disciples to be profligate in preaching the mercy of God.
Remember that this parable comes in between two blockbusters about Mercy- the Prodigal Son and Lazarus and the Rich Man. In a way, you might say Jesus is on a tear about the unbounded generosity of God in forgiveness and hope for us. He makes clear that the wealth of Divine Love is delivered to us by our unbounded Christian love for one another.
So today, maybe we can think about the Talbot’s guy. We have been abundantly blessed by God’s love for us. Let’s pay it forward over and over today… and every day. Let’s generously share the infinite discount of Mercy.
Poetry: from Day of a Stranger by Thomas Merton
I am out of bed at two-fifteen in the morning,
when the night is darkest and most silent. . ..
I find myself in the primordial lostness of night,
solitude, forest, peace, a mind awake in the dark,
looking for a light,
not totally reconciled to being out of bed.
A light appears, and in the light an ikon.
There is now in the large darkness
a small room of radiance with psalms in it.
The psalms grow up silently by themselves
without effort like plants
in this light which is favorable to them.
The plants hold themselves up on stems
that have a single consistency,
that of mercy, or rather great mercy.
Magna misericordia.
In the formlessness of night and silence
a word then pronounces itself: Mercy.
Music: Jesus Paid It All – Elvira M. Hall (1865)
This rendition of the hymn by Kristian Stanfill (born 1983) is so interesting. Offered here with modern instrumentation, the words date back to the era of the US Civil War. Past and present meld in the ever eternal love God has for us.
Lavish Mercy 
Enjoyed the poem entitled “ The Day of a Stranger”.
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