Friday – 31st Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Luke 16:1-8

A Full Plate

Mabry-Hazen House, Dining Room, Knoxville

 

 

These were the dinner options on our menu a couple days ago:

Thick double-cut pork chop with an Italian panko and parmesan romano crust and finely chopped seasoned and sauted spinach.  A thick tomatoey Italian marinara over durham wheat spaghetti pasta and dusted with fresh parmesan.  Both with warm ciabatta!  Finished off with fresh homemade vanilla ice cream topped with fresh pureed apples.

Now granted, these were all leftovers from our meals from the last few days!  But the most difficult part of the meal was choosing which item!  As is always the case, neither of us wanted to choose first.  “I’ll take whatever you don’t want”!!!  You know how that goes!  It’s not as if any choice would be a bad one but still Ginger and I always seem to defer to the other.  In the end, choices do get made and we both enjoy a home-cooked (re-cooked) meal.  And yes, even today that routine continues!!

Yes, we do relish a date night out at a favorite restaurant (and we continue to add Tennessee favorites to our list) and those nights are memorable.  But we never let the meal overshadow the time we get to spend with each other and, for a brief moment, to take a breath and step aside from the worries of the world.  In the end, it’s not just a meal!

Sometimes we can all get so caught up in the world that ‘our stomach’ becomes our God! We think only of ourselves and earthly things and forget that our citizenship is in heaven and not here on earth.  We can get so self-absorbed and selfish that we treat God like a leftover.  We feed our bellies and not our soul!  Even in the Gospel, Jesus holds up the dishonest servant as a good example of a bad example.  He is wise but it is the wisdom of the world and not a wisdom we should practice!  The parable is essentially a warning to us all not to compromise our values and morals to that of the world around us!

Every day we are faced with choices – good and bad, compassionate or not, (meat or pasta, soup or salad)!  Earthly or eternal!  We can go to great lengths to satisfy our material needs – the best clothes, the best home, the best restaurant!  But in the end, God calls us to a higher purpose – a life beyond selfishness and greed (like the steward in today’s Gospel) a life of faith and compassion.  Let us pray that we put every effort into recognizing and fulfilling our spiritual needs! 

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