The Steward as Sojourner

The same homily from the Gospel according to Luke concerning the steward of unrighteousness.

Many times I have said to you, while conversing, that a certain molded and false notion falling upon men multiplies sins and diminishes good things, which each of us ought to practice according to our own way of life. And this is to think that all things which we have in the use of life we have acquired as masters and lords. And because of this assumption, we contend fiercely on their behalf, and we fight, and we judge, and we are consumed to the extreme as if we were owners of possessions.

But the truth is not so, but rather strongly contrary. For all things of which we have received, they are not ours; nor indeed are we as owners and lords of this life, as if we were settled in our own house, but we are led as resident aliens and sojourners and migrants to where we do not want and when we do not expect. And we are deprived of the things that exist, when it seems good to the Lord, of the possession.

Therefore also the life of this wicked one is a changeable thing; and he who is glorious today is tomorrow wretched, worthy of pity and lamentation and help; he who is now prosperous and well-provided with the materials of wealth, a poor man after a little while, not even having the bread from his own house which is brought to life. And in this especially our God excels the dead, by being always the same and likewise to have and to have acquired life and glory and power without being taken away.

Wherefore then, how I came to this beginning of the word, it perhaps is already known to those having understanding and to lovers of learning. Luke, having reshaped a parable for us, clearly presented, in which he describes the steward of others' things being squeezed and distressed, because, as one who is cut and costly, he heard from the master of the goods and possessions: 'Give an account of your management and depart; for I will not allow you to occupy myself with mine as if they were your own.' This, however, is not an explanation of a thing having happened, but a shaping...

A rebuke to those covered by the words, training moral virtue. Therefore, let each man know that he is a manager of someone else's property, and having cast from his soul the pride of authority, let him take up the humble and reverent role of the one responsible and the steward, always awaiting his lord and with trembling writing his account.

For he is a resident alien, having received permission for a short use and a temporary stay. But if you doubt the well-known things, learn from what happens and be instructed by the unerring teacher, experience.

Whether you have acquired a field, having received it from your fathers or having become master through association with someone. Calculate then in your memory and count, if you are able, all those who possessed it before you; and impose upon the future time the mind to consider how many will rule over it after you. Tell me, then, whose lordship is distinct and exceptional: those who possessed it, those who have it, or those who are going to have it? For if anyone were to gather everyone by a mechanism, those who have possessed it would be found more numerous than the oxen.

Rather, if you truly wish to see what our life is like, remember once when traveling in summer, I saw a spreading tree, extending greatly in width and length, sufficient to fill the need of a house with its shade. Having been delighted by this, you went under it and, as far as it was possible, remained there.

And since it was necessary again to depart, while you were deliberating your arrival, another traveler appeared. You indeed had your baggage, the cloak, but he was cleaning his own and receiving all your things in a collection: the straw, the fire, the shade of the tree, the running water. And he had the reclining, while you had the walking; he was delighted there also, then he left; and the one tree in a single day became by chance a short-term lodging for ten strangers; and all that happened was for the one who is truly the Lord. So also are the possessions of the life spent here.