26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

        Homily of Cardinal Thomas Collins Re: Stewardship Sunday - September 18, 2022

                I remember that once, when I was a seminarian, there was a Mass early in the morning in the seminary chapel, and the priest had a very clever way of getting our attention. He took a little bag containing nickels, dimes, and pennies and, during his homily, he threw the contents onto the marble floor of the chapel so that they all went clinkity-clinkity-clink. Anyone who was asleep at that early time woke up very quickly. The point he was making, which I remember, now after over 50 years, was that we who are serving the Lord need to learn from those who serve mere mammon, mere wealth -earthly things.

               For those little coins, for mere material goods, people are willing to spend time, energy, and creativity - to use all their talents and abilities, just to get those coins that were rolling on the floor…so unimportant in the great scheme of things. We who have been given the message of the Gospel, the invitation to the Kingdom of God, and the grace of the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist; we who have been given so many gifts from the Lord, including the brief time we have on this earth, need to use our talents with at least the intelligence, the wisdom, the astuteness of the people of this world who use them very effectively for things which are not worth very much, or even for things which are evil. The children of the light, the servants of the Lord, must know how to be effective in using the gifts that God has given them. That's a very good point which we need to think about, especially this day when we reflect throughout the Archdiocese on the great gift of stewardship.

               We are stewards. We are servants who are entrusted with the gifts of time, talent and treasure. God has given us our very life and the precious gift of time. He has given us our talents and has helped each one of us in different ways. Above all, He has given us the great gift of our faith, as well as the material goods we possess. We've been entrusted with these gifts only for a while, in order that we might use them wisely and astutely, with at least the creativity and the energy that the people who serve false gods, or no God at all, use in the pursuit of the far lesser things that they cherish.

               In the traditional wisdom of the church, there is a great way of looking at stewardship, or how to live as one entrusted with the gifts that God has given to us of time, talent, and treasure, and how to use them fruitfully for the glory of God in the service of our neighbour.

               This little bit of wisdom speaks of “See, Judge, and Act”. We need to “See” clearly the situation in which we live, just as people who are simply trying to get ahead in the world need to see what is really going on. We need to be astute, shrewd and prudent in seeing reality clearly, so that we make good decisions. We need to “Judge”, and assess our situation according to the principles of the Gospel. Then we need to …………

               to read the full homily go to this link …  https://www.archtoronto.org