Sunday Meditation: The Parable of the Unjust Stewart

After that brief interlude last Sunday with the Exaltation of the Cross, today on the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C we return to Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem.  Today we get one of the most misunderstood parable in the entire New Testament.  Today, Jesus offers us the Parable of the Unjust Stewart or sometimes called the Dishonest Stewart.  No, He is not giving us permission to steal.  Three years ago I posted on this very Gospel passage with an embedded video from Dr. Brant Pitre explaining the cultural context and the nuanced theme of the passage.  In summary, the gist is that “you are to pay off spiritual debts—sins—with the Lord’s money, so that those you whose debts you pay off will welcome you into eternal happiness.”  It’s rather complex and I urge you to go back and read that post and listen to Dr. Pitre.

 

Here is the Gospel passage.

 

Jesus said to his disciples,

"A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property.

He summoned him and said,

'What is this I hear about you?

Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.'

The steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?

I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.

I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.'

He called in his master's debtors one by one.

To the first he said,

'How much do you owe my master?'

He replied, 'One hundred measures of olive oil.'

He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note.

Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.'

Then to another the steward said, 'And you, how much do you owe?'

He replied, 'One hundred kors of wheat.'

The steward said to him, 'Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.'

And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.

 

"For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.

If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?

If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?

No servant can serve two masters.

He will either hate one and love the other,

or be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and mammon."

~Lk 16:1-13

 

Dr. Pitre explained it one way.  Fr. Tim Peters does a magnificent job of explaining it another way.  I think this is the fullest, most complete explanation.

The moral is actually to use your shrewdness, all of your gifts to help those in need.  Those gifts don’t belong to you.  They are the Lord’s lent out to you, the unrighteous mammon.  Using your wisdom and prudence, you solve matters for those in debt, and then you will be part of the children of the light.

I was so happy to find that one of my favorite homilists, Fr. Joseph Mary of the Capuchin Franciscans, recorded a homily on this passage.  This is incredibly entertaining.

So who is your master?  If all homilies were like that, we would all be waiting in line to listen to Fr. Joseph. 

 

Sunday Meditation: “"For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”

 

Fr. Tim’s exhortation to serve somebody recalled Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody.”  I have posted that heart convicting song before, so instead I am going to post a rendition by the Melbourne Mass Gospel Choir, featuring Suzannah Espie.  This is wonderful.

 

I don’t know Suzannah Espie but man can she sing.  Kudos to the entire choir.  They are wonderful.