03.06.2024 – St. Patrick Catholic Church, Largo, FL

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God´s gifts demand responsibility and accountability

2Peter 1:2-7, Psalm 91, Mark 12:1-12

We begin another day. We begin another week. We give thanks for all his blessings. We give God the glory for all the good things we have received both tangible and intangible.

Today´s readings remind us of our responsibility and our accountability towards these gifts. All the good things that we have received, how do we make use of them? Are we wasteful, nonchalant or negligent? Or are we productive, do we add value to our community, our environment, our fellow creatures, our fellow pilgrims in this journey of life?

Today´s first reading from The Second Letter of St. Peter particularly says that “God has given us all we need to live well, sharing in divine life.” All the good gifts we have received material and spiritual come from God. Like good stewards, we ought to use them well. The Apostle challenges us to “make every effort to support [y]our faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness…” This takes us back to the very beginnings when God created man and installed him in a beautiful garden he had made with a command him to be fruitful and multiply as we read in Genesis´ Creation story. Man is to make good use of the gifts he has received from God. The gift of life is to be received with thankfulness, with responsibility and accountability.

Today´s Gospel reading Jesus tells us this now famous parable of the Wicked Tenants. It is a practical example of what God the owner of the vineyard expects from all of us. We are all stewards. We are all servants. We are not the land owners. A good steward, a trustworthy servant is known by his responsibility and accountability. St. Peter reminds us that we have all it takes to be that responsible and accountable stewards.

We now live in a modern world, who with its Artificial Intelligence, Sophisticated Science and Tech sometimes wants to make us believe that we are now the true land owners. Humility demands us to always remember that no matter how sophisticated we become; the human brain which stands at the center of it all did not auto-create itself. We are all God´s creatures and the command be fruitful and multiply comes with an obligation to be responsible and accountable.

O Lord, we place our trust in you, my God, helps us to recognize you in all things great and small as we go about our daily activities this day. May we not be like those wicked tenants in the parable who fail to understand what it means to be accountable and responsible. Help us to be productive and accountable. Amen.