Today Holy Mother Church places before us two luminous texts—one from the wisdom of the ancients, the other from the mouth of Our Divine Master—so that we may learn what it means to live as vigilant stewards in this brief exile.
From Sirach 31:8–11, we hear:
“Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish, and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures. Who is he, and we will praise him? For he hath done wonderful things in his life… he shall be remembered in blessing.”
And from Luke 12:35–40:
“Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands, and you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord… Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find watching… Be you also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of Man will come.”
I. The Blessed Man in the World, but Not of It
St. John Vianney would often say that “the saints did not consider themselves owners of anything, but stewards for God.” The truly rich man is not the one who has much, but the one who is free from the love of what he has.
St. Augustine, commenting on this detachment, reminds us: “He possesses all things who possesses Him who made all things.” The blessed man of Sirach is precisely this: one who can hold the goods of earth lightly because his heart clings to God alone.
This is why the rich man “without blemish” is so rare and so praiseworthy—because riches are a subtle snare. St. Basil the Great warns: “The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the cloak hanging in your closet belongs to the naked; the gold you have buried in the ground belongs to the poor.” The saintly steward sees possessions as a trust from God, to be administered for His glory, not for self-indulgence.
II. Lamps Burning Before the Returning Lord
But the Lord’s parable in Luke turns our eyes from this world’s stewardship to the eternal reckoning. “Let your loins be girt” is the call to readiness—an echo of the Israelites eating the Passover in haste, loins girded, staffs in hand, awaiting deliverance.
St. Gregory the Great explains: “To have the loins girt is to restrain the lusts of the flesh through continence; to have lamps burning is to shine before our neighbor with the light of good works.” The vigilant steward keeps watch not with anxious fear, but with a joyful longing for the Master’s return.
The Cure of Ars would often tell his parishioners: “When we have Heaven to gain, we must not sleep along the way.” How many souls, he lamented, live as if the Master will never come, or as if His coming will be announced long beforehand! But Our Lord says plainly: “At an hour you think not, the Son of Man will come.”
III. The Crown of Remembrance
The man of Sirach “shall be remembered in blessing.” The faithful steward of Luke is promised something even greater—Our Lord says He will “gird Himself, make them sit down to meat, and coming will minister to them.”
This is a mystery that makes the saints tremble with joy: the Master serving the servant, the Eternal King rewarding His watchmen not merely with gifts, but with Himself. St. Cyriacus, St. Largus, and St. Smaragdus, whose commemoration we keep today, lived with such readiness—despising the emperor’s threats, holding fast to Christ as the true treasure, and entering into His banquet through martyrdom.
Conclusion
To live these readings is to stand between detachment and vigilance:
- Detachment from riches, that our hearts be free.
- Vigilance in grace, that our lamps be always burning.
As St. John Vianney might sum it up: “We have only to keep our eyes on Heaven, and all the rest will follow.”
Let us, then, ask the intercession of today’s martyrs and the holy Curé, that we may be found among those blessed servants—rich in charity, poor in attachment, loins girt, lamps shining—ready to open to the Master at His first knock