There’s a sentence near the beginning of the passage of the Holy Gospel for this weekend that caught my eye immediately. It was this… “What’s this I hear about you?” I stopped after reading this sentence and pictured God saying the sentence to me! “What’s this I hear about you, Katherine?” Whew! I hoped He heard something good! This weekend’s Holy Gospel tells the story of the steward who was reported to the owner of the property for squandering his goods. This reading reminds us that WE are God’s stewards and that God expects faithful and shrewd stewardship from each of us. The Gospel challenges us to use our God-given talents and blessings ingeniously to build the kingdom of God right here on earth. We’re not just talking about the big things/decisions in life. We need to be faithful in the little things of life as well. Let us remember Saint John Chrysostom’s statement, "Faithfulness in little things is a big thing" and Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s reminder, “Do little things with great love.” It would behoove us to not ignore doing little things, like acknowledging a favor by saying a sincere “thank you,” or congratulating others for their success, or sharing in the sorrows of others and offering them help and support in their needs. We must not forget that “we know not the day nor the hour that the Lord will come for us!” Whenever that is, we need to be prepared to give an account of OUR stewardship. Think about it…we insure our houses against fire, storms, flood and thieves and insure our lives by taking life insurance and car insurance. In the same way, let us insure ourselves for the one thing that most certainly will happen, namely, our meeting God face to face to give Him an account of our lives. What will really matter at that time…and the only thing that will matter… is how wisely we have used our blessings/gifts/talents/possessions during our life, lovingly and generously sharing them with others in need. Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, once told about a make-believe country where only ducks lived. On Sunday morning all the ducks came into church, waddled down the aisle, waddled into their pews and squatted. Then the duck minister came in, took his place behind the pulpit, opened the Duck Bible and read, "Ducks! You have wings, and with wings you can fly like eagles. You can soar into the skies! Ducks! You have wings!" All the ducks yelled, "Amen!" and then they all waddled home. No one flew or even tried. There’s a whole lot of truth to this little fable. Using the parable of a rascal manager in today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus challenges us to see that it is time for the “children of light” to quit waddling. It's time for us to soar by using our God-given talents and blessings for the welfare of others, thus glorifying God and becoming eligible for our eternal reward. May we be the people that Jesus praises because we saw something that needed to be done and we did it! GOSPEL QUESTION FOR THE WEEK: Are you ready to answer Jesus today if He calls and says, “What’s this I hear about you?”