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from the beginning, confided His most precious interests,
the deposit of His law, the promise of the Messias and
the observance of the true worship. The day came
when God was pleased to call for an account of the
stewardship, and the Synagogue was found wanting.
As the climax of its disloyalty and dishonesty, it put to
death the Son of God ; yet it might have escaped ruin by
means which our Lord Himself indicates when He praises
the steward who was justly accused. The unhappy
man, feeling that all was lost, made use of what little
influence he still possessed, to procure intercessors on
his behalf, and by compassionating their distress to
make friends of his master s debtors.
It was precisely because the first apostles understood
the merciful designs of the divine Master, that the Church
grew in strength and won such great victories. The
Apostle, Saint Peter, invested with unlimited power by
our Lord never forgot that he had denied Him and
having been forgiven, he ever treated with indulgence
and compassion those who were debtors of his divine
Master. Saint Paul too did not spare himself when he
wrote that our Lord had made him a preacher of the
Gospel, he who before was a blasphemer and a persecu
tor ; but he found mercy that he might serve as an example
for those who will believe in God unto life everlasting.
Such is ever and always the spirit of the Catholic Church,
her ministers look upon themselves as nothing in them
selves. They are only the STEWARDS OF GOD to
distribute His graces and to make liberal use of the
power given them to forgive sins that thus they like
wise may obtain mercy. The lesson to be drawn from
this parable by us all is that we must BE MERCIFUL
towards those who have injured us in anyway, if we
would ourselves obtain mercy of God.