Cycle C - Year I:

22 September 2013: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical color: Green)

Luke 16:1-13

Being wise and clever in matters of the spirit!

In the continuing outrage by Filipinos over the allegation of massive misuse of public funds, the parable in this Sunday's Gospel will shake our faith or at least puzzle us at first glance.

In the gist of the parable, let us see why it is difficult to understand: An employee who cheats on his employer, who manipulates his master's money to make friends upon losing his job. And the master instead of getting angry praises the dishonest employee "because he had acted shrewdly".

This is certainly a most challenging parable. And still, it comes from Jesus' mouth himself, so it must say something terribly important for us.

And so we may ask: how can a bad person give us a good example? Perhaps Jesus must have thought that the example of a bad person would be a perfect illustration for a spiritual lesson about the kingdom of God.

What, then, is the point of Jesus' parable? Well, the master praises the dishonest steward or employee certainly not for being dishonest but for being clever and for his shrewdness. 

The original meaning of "shrewdness" is "foresight". Thus, a shrewd person grasps a critical situation with resolution and foresight. Obviously, Jesus was concerned here with something more critical  than a financial crisis. Jesus is teaching us that we avert spiritual crisis through the exercise of faith and foresight. That is, we must act decisively and plan shrewdly in order to secure our place in God's kingdom.

In practical sense, the message of the parable is not to extol those who swindle their bosses. Rather, Jesus uses this parable to teach us the importance of acting prudently in spiritual matters, with the same tenacity that worldly persons apply in temporal matters. In other words, if Christians would only spend as much foresight and energy to spiritual matters which have eternal consequences as much as they do to worldly matters which have temporal consequences, then they would be truly better off, both in this life and in the age to come.

God expects us to utilize all of our material gifts in order to prepare ourselves for eternal life with Him. Thus, we must be wise and clever, and shrewd in matters of the spirit in the acquisition of treasures that last forever.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!