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 A WORD FROM THE PASTOR
Reorganizing Our Priorities!
A young lawyer was called in to represent a large railroad company that was being sued by a farmer. It seems that the farmer's prize cow was missing from his field through which the railroad passed, and the farmer was suing for the value of the cow. Before the case was to be tried, the lawyer cornered the farmer and convinced him to settle out of court for half of what he originally wanted. The farmer signed the necessary papers and then accepted the check.
The young lawyer could not resist gloating a bit about his success. He said to the farmer, "You know, I couldn't have won this case if it had gone to trial. The engineer was asleep, and the fireman was in the caboose (wagon) when the train passed through your farm that morning. I didn't have a single witness to put on the stand!" With a cynical smile, the old farmer replied, "Well, I was a little worried about winning that case myself because that cow came home this morning."
Both the farmer and the lawyer are like the shrewd crook Jesus told in today’s gospel.
Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. He found out that he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, so he decided he needed a wife with whom to share his fortune. One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away. "I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, "but in just a few years my father will die, and I'll inherit 20 million dollars." Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later she became his stepmother.
This man is also like a shrewd crook Jesus told in today’s gospel.
We live in a society that considers the accumulation of material wealth to be a worthy goal. In trying to serve both God and mammon, are we becoming more concerned about earning more money and improving our standard of living than in building up our spiritual wealth and growing closer to God? This is Jesus’ question to us. Will we recognize where our true wealth lies, the wealth that God gives freely to all, and reorganize our priorities in this light?
In the Service of the Lord,
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