Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time [II]
Philippians 3:17—4:1  +  Luke 16:1-8
November 6, 2020

“And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.”

“Our citizenship is in Heaven”.  What would our lives look like if we believed these words sincerely?  Saint Paul is exhorting the Philippians neither to place their faith in this world, nor to use the things of this world for their own sake.

If our citizenship is in Heaven, then we are sojourners in this world.  To place our faith in this world is to sink our roots in this world, which can only tie us down when God chooses us to raise us to Himself:  either briefly in prayer, or into Heaven after our death.  How many persons spend a great deal of their time in Purgatory casting off their ties to the world?

If our citizenship is in Heaven, then the things of this world are means, rather than ends.  What do we seek in this life?  What we seek are our ends.  Do we seek things that are of this world?  Or is what we’re seeking of God?  God gives us good things in this world to use as stepping stones, to draw others, and to be drawn up into our true citizenship in Heaven.