Are you good a pop quizzes?
Imagine that we had a pop-quiz this morning and that THESE were the four questions. How do you think you would do? [Parenthetically: The good news is that you don’t have to tell anyone how you did: This is just for you.]
1. Name the three wealthiest people in the world in the year 2000
2. Name the Academy Award winners for best actor and best actress from 2010-2014.
3. Name the three people with the most followers on Twitter in 2017
4. Name the last three Heisman trophy winners or the last three winners of the Miss America contest
How well do you think you would do? My guess is that – unless we have a few a semi-pro Trivia players here – most of us would do pretty poorly. The point is, most of us don’t remember that stuff. Honestly, I think that’s a good thing. That stuff IS trivial. For a moment, they are the best in their fields. But the applause dies; the money goes to someone else; the awards are forgotten.
Before we move to our SECOND pop quiz, a question. Is there anyone here who was the answer to one those questions? No? Okay. (I was hoping for one of the richest people in the world. sigh…)
Here’s our second quiz. If THESE, instead, were the four questions, how many do you think you could answer? Please don’t raise your hands, but how would you do if these were the questions:
1. One: Name a teacher or a priest who taught you something important or who somehow made a difference in your life.
2. Describe someone to whom you are related or whom you’ve met whose goodness has inspired you.
3. Give us the names of two friends who ever helped you through a difficult time
4. Tell us about someone who saw your goodness; someone who has believed in you even when you could not.
You might not have gotten many right answers – if any at all – on the first quiz. Yet I’ll bet most people here could name someone for EACH of the questions on the second. The people who make a difference in our lives are not the ones with the most awards, money, or fame. They are the ones who care. They are the ones whose goodness makes our world better.
In today’s gospel, in what is perhaps one of the strangest stories Jesus tells, we are admonished to look at how we use the gifts and talents and treasure that God has given us for the good of this world. “Make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” The steward is not praised for his dishonesty (and there is some debate on whether he was just cutting out HIS OWN middle man position ‘expense’ to lower the amount that people owed, or whether he really was using the “dishonest wealth” that Jesus was talking about to put himself into a better place upon his firing). Rather, he is PRAISED for DOING SOMETHING with what he had. Knowing he couldn’t dig ditches, or beg, he took stock – what can I use to make my world a better place. And though it is still a selfish use of his master’s goods, when it was over, at least three of his master’s debtors were in better shape than before.
GET BUSY and DO SOMETHING for the good of others with the gifts entrusted to you. That becomes the message of this gospel. Use this world’s goods to create something eternal. We call that stewardship – Living a life of gratitude and generosity. Which, when we think of it, means living a life that most likely puts you in the 2nd category of questions – where you become the answer to someone else’s needs, hopes, prayers and examples of how to live life.. And what I need to say simply is THANK YOU. Thank you for your generosity that helps us to accomplish so much good here at SJM. I see you using your wealth in so many ways to make a difference.
Who knows? Maybe someday you will win an Academy Award; a Miss America contest; or a Heisman trophy. Or maybe not. I do know this. It won’t be long before I forget who won this year’s Heisman Trophy and Academy Awards, But I will never forget the generosity I know in you. And they ways you inspire me to be ever more faithful and loving in my response. Thank you for being the answers to those second set of questions.