It is good to be back in Holy Family after my vacation in Peru. As I was leaving, people asked me, "Padre, when will we be seeing you again?" Instead of saying, "next year, God willing," it was fun to say, "I will see you next century."

Like everyone else the Peruvians are counting the days until the year 2000 - right now, only 47 days remaining in this millenium. This reminds us how rapidly time passes and how short our lives are. We do not know the hour of our death. Fr. Gallagher told me about some funerals he had while I was in Peru. I was stunned to hear about the death of a young woman whose marriage I had celebrated just two year ago. Who can say when their own moment will come? The message of Jesus this Sunday is: be prepared. Soon each of us will have to give an account for how we have used God's gifts.

In a few moments I will be asking a married couple from our parish to give a testimony about their use of God's gifts, but before introducing them, I would like to focus briefly on the parable we just heard.

Jesus tells us about a man who, before he goes on a journey, leaves his servants with various amounts of money. Now, it can seem unfair that the one who got the least turns out to be chastised for burying his money in the ground. But Jesus is speaking to something deep in our human psychology. Each of us can tend to hold back because we compare ourselves to others. But that is a fatal mistake. Instead of comparing himself to those who got more, he should have taken another approach. Things would have turned out much differently if he would have started with gratitude.

That is really what Stewardship is about. Stewardship or Sacrificial Giving has been defined as "an attitude of gratitude." If we recognize where our gifts have come from, we cannot do other than make a return for what we have been given. I would like to introduce a couple who are a fine example of that. Please give your full attention to John and Maggie Levesque.

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Parish Holy Door for Year of Jubilee

From Archives (for Thirty-Third Ordinary Sunday, Year A):