Overview:

Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

“[O]ur citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3:20)

Find today’s readings here.

I watched this Albert Brooks movie called “Defending Your Life” with my mom as a teenager. I didn’t want to watch it in the least, but she insisted. And I surprised myself. I laughed so hard, I can’t even begin to tell you. 

The story is about death, basically. The lead character, played by Brooks, dies and goes to this kind of purgatory called Judgment City. There, dead folks go to hearings where it is decided whether they will move on or be sent back to Earth for another try. They are judged on whether they faced their fears. 

To this day, the movie influences how I think about death. I thought of the film as I prayed with today’s readings. St. Paul encourages us to stand firm and face challenges because we are citizens of heaven, and in Psalm 122, we sing, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.” 

The Gospel about the dishonest steward is less straightforward. For centuries, it has remained one of the most perplexing passages in the New Testament. Why does the master praise this man who is rewriting debts? 

According to the church fathers, the master is praising the steward’s prudence, not his dishonesty. Whatever his flaws, the steward is honest with himself: “I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg” (Lk 16:3). He knows his life is about to change drastically, and he adapts. 

Life itself points out my limitations, although I seem to be slow to learn. I’m getting older, so I have to stretch more if I want my body to work right. I can’t eat as much junk food, and I have to eat more Greek yogurt than I care for. I’m also mortal. No matter how many probiotic cultures I introduce into my body or how many walks I take, I’m not going to be here forever. 

Keeping that limit front and center each day turns down the volume on the small stuff and emboldens me to face my fears, from personal confrontations to medical procedures. I hope that, in the distant future, this habit will help me “go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”

J.D. Long García is a senior editor at America and co-author of Clericalism: The Institutional Dimension of the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis.