“Futile Scheme”

1 Corinthians 7: 29a, 31: “The time has been shortened, so that those who use the world should be as those who do not make full use of it, for the form of this world is passing away.” The word ‘form’ that St. Paul uses here is, in his Greek, ‘schema’, from which we get the word ‘scheme.’ Indeed, the world’s schemes are not here forever, for they are contrary to the Kingdom of God. But if it is true of us, as it was of the shrewd steward (Luke 16: 8), that we are more shrewd in operating the schemes of the world than we are the ways of the Kingdom, what will we do when they pass away?