Mind your business!

WORD 2day: Friday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

September 2, 2022: 1 Corinthians 4: 1-5; Luke 5: 33-39

At times we mind everybody else's business, forgetting the all important business that we have, our own life! The Word today instructs us to mind just our business. How hard can one try to satisfy everyone around? Is it worth the effort at all? How many lives are made so boring and barren merely out of living up to the expectations of the world around! The secret of a truly fruitful and meaningful life is: knowing your business, and going about it.

Minding one's business could be interpreted negatively, as not interfering in others' business! There could be another important meaning and that is, to be clear as to what one's given task is and being convinced to go about it, come what may. It consists of knowing that I am here with a purpose and I have a task given to me and being at that task, without attaching too much importance to eventualities - whether they are good or bad, encouraging or displeasing. It consists therefore, first and foremost, in knowing who we are!

As St. Paul says in his letter today, what is expected of us good stewards is that each one is found worthy of the One, whose stewards we are! Knowing who we are and striving to be faithful to that identity, is the Christian meaning to our life. Christ did just that. He knew he was the Son of God and he lived his life to the full, worthy of the identity that he inherited from his Father. 

We are called to be his stewards, and we are called to live worthy of it, notwithstanding the praises or critiques, the affirmations and the discouragements that might come our way. If we try to patch up with unfitting elements merely because those around us are looking for it, if we mix up unblending elements just because the world around enjoys it... we may lose the true sense of our calling. The best thing, amidst all the mixed voices around, is to know and mind our business!