Cycle C - Year II:  

18 September 2022: Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Amos 8:4-7

Second Reading:   1 Timothy 2:1-8

Gospel:  Please Read  Luke 16:1-13 (Luke 16:10-13) 

To act prudently on spiritual matters!

Let us begin our reflection with this Prayer to the Holy Spirit:

O Holy Spirit, I praise You and thank You for dwelling in my heart. Grant me the understanding and knowledge of You and Your Word. Help me to see and understand what Your Holy Bible is speaking into my life. Amen.

Today's Gospel proclamation is difficult to understand for us lay people. Our Lord Jesus tells a parable that may shake our faith, or puzzle us at first because of its contradiction to what our Lord normally teaches.

That is why we begin our reflection imploring the Holy Spirit for understanding and knowledge. In fact, we should always begin our reading of the Holy Bible with a prayer to the Holy Spirit for guidance in understanding God's Word.

Let us see why it is difficult to understand this Parable of the Shrewd or Dishonest Steward. Jesus tells a story of an employee who cheats his employer by squandering his master's property. The master heard of this and decided to terminate his stewardship. But before losing his job, the clever employee made friends with his master's other debtors by reducing their actual debts to the master. By doing this "cheating" the employee hopes to find favors with those he helped with their debts. And so the master learning of what he did, actually praised the clever employee "because he acted shrewdly" instead of getting angry.

This is why the parable is most challenging: what good is there in being dishonest? But still, it comes from Jesus' mouth Himself, so it must say something terribly important for us.

Our Lord Jesus used the example of a rascal as an illustration for a spiritual lesson about the kingdom of God.  For the master in this parable praises the dishonest steward or employee, not for being dishonest, but for being clever and for his shrewdness.

The original meaning of "shrewdness" is actually "foresight". This means that a shrewd person grasps a critical situation with resolution and foresight.  So our Lord Jesus is concerned here with something more critical than a financial crisis. He is teaching the disciples that they can avert spiritual crisis through the exercise of faith and foresight.

What do we make of this Parable of the Shrewd Steward in our Christian living?

It is obvious that the purpose 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 can only spend as much foresight and energy to spiritual matters (which have eternal consequences) as much as they do to worldly matters (which have only temporal consequences), then they would be truly better off not only in this life but also in the age to come.

The parable then calls us to reconsider our relationship with wealth in this world, and to reconsider our relationship with each other. For wealth in this world is meaningless in eternity, but what we do with it isn't.

So then, to be blessed with material possessions carries a great responsibility.  The Lord expects us to use them honestly and responsibly by putting wealth at God's service and service to others, and not just for ourselves.  Because in reality we are God's servants and all that we have actually belongs to Him.  God expects us to make a good return on what He generously gives to us in terms of material possessions. God loves generosity and He gives liberally to those who share their gifts or blessings with others, especially the needy.

Our Lord Jesus makes clear that our hearts must either be possessed by God's love or our hearts will be possessed by the love of something else. "No one 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 God and mammon." (Lk 16:13)  It is our choice, and we must be wise and clever, and shrewd in matters of the spirit in the acquisition of treasures that last forever.

Thank You, O Holy Spirit, for guiding us to understand God's Word for today.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!