GOOD STEWARDS

November 5, Friday

THIRTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

 

      Paul excuses himself for interfering in the affairs of the Church of Rome, for it was not founded by him. But he will rely on the Romans for his missionary journeys to the West. He has two basic reasons for dealing with them: collegiality – for he is an apostle like the others – and his priestly ministry as evangelizer bringing the Good News to all.

      Whatever the unknown context of today’s parable may have been, the central thought of Jesus’ words seems to be this: Much has been entrusted to us and we will have to give an account for it to God. We must act responsibly, keeping our goal in mind: God and our neighbor. Let us be people who try to know where we are going and what we are doing.

 

First Reading: Romans 15:14-21

Personally, I’ve been completely satisfied with who you are and what you are doing. You seem to me to be well-motivated and well-instructed, quite capable of guiding and advising one another. So, my dear friends, don’t take my rather bold and blunt language as criticism. It’s not criticism. I’m simply underlining how very much I need your help in carrying out this highly focused assignment God gave me, this priestly and gospel work of serving the spiritual needs of the non-Jewish outsiders so they can be presented as an acceptable offering to God, made whole and holy by God’s Holy Spirit.

Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased—in the context of Jesus, I’d even say proud, but only in that context. I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transforming present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders. In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece. This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped. My text has been,

Those who were never told of him—
    they’ll see him!
Those who’ve never heard of him—
    they’ll get the message!

 

Gospel: Luke 16:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’

“The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’

“Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

 “He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’

“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’

“To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’

“He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’

“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’

“Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself.

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
you have made us responsible with you
for many persons and things:
for ourselves, for other people,
for the future of this world.
May we be good stewards
of all you have entrusted to us.
Help us to use our talents wisely and well
in the service of all that is good,
always inspired by faith
and living in the love
of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Imitate the good deed of the crooked; and not the bad

Today’s parable brings a certain confusion because, apparently, Jesus is praising the dishonest administrator and this cannot be recommended for us Christians to imitate! We are expecting a different conclusion. Jesus should have said to his disciples: “Do not act like this villain; be honest!” Instead he approves of what he did. The difficulty lies here: how could a dishonest person be offered as a model?

This difficulty does not exist if the parable is interpreted in a different way. Remember, the owner praised his former administrator for his shrewdness. If he had further cheated the owner before leaving the office, the owner would have been outraged. It means, in the process of the dishonest steward making the debtors rewrite their promissory notes,  the master has not lost anything.

The reason was that the deal between the stewards and the owner is that the stewards must deliver a certain amount to their owner; but they would usually charge a much higher amount  from the debtors and whatever extra was collected could get into their pockets. It was the technique used by the tax collectors to enrich themselves.

What does the shrewd servant do? He decides to forgo the profit he was expected to have. Then the admiration of the owner and the praise of Jesus have a logical explanation.

The administrator was shrewd—says the Lord—because he understood on which to bet on: not on goods, products that he was entitled to, that could rot or be stolen, but on friends. He knew how to renounce the first in order to conquer for himself the second.

Therefore, Jesus is not praising bribery or corruption, but he is appreciating his shrewdness to give up his bad profits to gain friends! It is the path of “Christian cleverness”. This path allows us to be cunning but not according to the spirit of the world. Jesus himself tells us:  “be wise as serpents, innocent as doves.” This Christian cleverness is a gift; it is a grace that the Lord gives to us.

Explaining this passage, Pope Francis called on Christians to pray for people who are dishonest and corrupt in their work places. They feed their children with dirty bread, earned through dirty, unjust, dishonest money. This will deprive them of their dignity. Ask the Lord to change the hearts of those who are corrupt and take bribery. That they may understand that dignity comes from noble work, from honest work, from daily work, and not from the easy road which in the end strips them of everything. When they face death, these people who lost their dignity through the practice of bribery do not take with them anything they earned. Let us pray for them.

 

Video available on Youtube: Imitate the good deed of the crooked; and not the bad