27th Sunday of in OT (A) – Pamamathala (Stewardship)

OCTOBER 5, 2014

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. Green.

Mt. 21:33-43

Pamamathala (Stewardship)

Vince Stanley Iñigo (op Postulant)

When I was still little child, my parents would always remind me whenever I borrow things to take care of other people’s belongings and treat it with love as if those were my own. Of course, they never fall short of reminding me to return those borrowed things; but so far as I remember some of those are still with me until now, I would like to apologize for that. Going bask, the reminder of my parents tells me of responsibility and stewardship.

Stewardship means “we are entrusted of something and accounted of something.” In Filipino, we translate this word in different ways: pangangalaga (caretaking), pagkakatiwala (entrusting), pamamathala (overseeing), etc. Now, let us focus on the tenants of the vineyard. When we say that we are tagapangalaga (Filipino root: pag-aalaga), we are given the task to take care of an object, an institution or a place.

When we say that we are katiwala (Filipino root: tiwala), we are entrusted an obligation. But pamamathala goes to a deeper meaning. In the olden times, the native Filipinos would call God, Bathala. When we consider ourselves as namamathala, we are given a responsibility in which God would have wished after the servants did not do anything productive. They beat one, killed another and stoned a third even the owner’s son was not spared. Do you think that they have practiced pamamathala in that manner?

In our daily lives, we are also called to practice stewardship. We are given talents, intelligence, strength and many more in different ways that God had fashioned us into and it's up to us if we want to discover more. Sometimes, we forget that we are only stewards to the point that our pride overpowers us. We tend to show off. We strive to own the world. We try to amass the produce by being indifferent to God's creation. It's time to wake up. It's time to fulfill our mission as stewards. The Creator entrusted us with natural and spiritual gifts in order for us to be productive tenants and servants for His Kingdom. My friends, remember that we are all stewards, that is tagapamathala.

NOTE:  Inspired by a composition entitled Dominican Poverty and Filipino Stewardship by Fr. Stephen Redillas, OP, page 24 of the book ““Nanahan sa Atin” by Pedregosa, Timoner, Marquez, etc.

KEYWORDS: 

Cycle A, Ordinary Time, OP Postulants, Stewardship, Mission, Entrustment