JULY 30, 2017
12:00 NOON EXTRAORDINARY FORM (LATIN) MASS
From 1970 to 1977, the TV sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show aired on CBS. The protagonist was the aforementioned actress who play the first never-married, independent career woman as the central character.
It is one of the most acclaimed US TV shows, having been praised by critics while it was on the air, as well as still ranking #6 out of the top 100 shows.
The show revolves around the social and work life of Mary Richards who works as associate producer of the Six O’Clock New in Minneapolis, MN. The anchorman, played by Ted Knight, is a buffoonish, idiot ... who can barely read his copy … yet is vain and arrogant despite being inarticulate and untalented.
In one scene, the bumbling news anchor Ted is unable to solve a simple arithmetic problem. That is, until someone quips: "Put a dollar sign in front of it, Ted", at which point the idiot-savant instantly arrives at the a answer.
In today’s Gospel from St. Luke’s 16th Chapter, we hear the story of the unjust but shrewd steward. Who, when caught stealing from his master, quickly steals even more in an effort to make himself allies among his master’s debtors.
At the end of the parable, the master commends the steward giving as the moral of the story:
[F]or the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.In the early 19th century, the Russian saint, Seraphim of Sarov, gave an interview with the nobleman Nikolay Motovilov, to whom he admonished:
Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit also by practicing all the other virtues for Christ's sake. Trade spiritually with them; trade with those which give you the greatest profit. Accumulate capital from the superabundance of God's grace, deposit it in God's eternal bank which will bring you immaterial interest, not four or six percent, but one hundred percent for one spiritual ruble, and even infinitely more than that.In other words, for those of us who live in the world, and perhaps struggle to see the value in prayer and sacraments … or the benefit of grace and virtue … maybe it would help us to put a dollar sign in front of it.
We would do well to approach the dispensations of grace and mercy poured out on us in superabundance, and invest them frugally in a life of virtue and holiness.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ let us receive this superabundant grace for our salvation with a willing and ready heart. May the graces we receive this day be treated as the valuable assets that they are, and may we not squander them … but rather invest them for our eternal future.
