After the three
magnificent parables on forgiveness in Chapter 15 of Luke that were proclaimed
last Sunday, we begin a new chapter on the use and abuse of money. The prophet Amos gets us off to a rousing
start in the first reading with his denunciation of the moneyed elite of the
very wealthy northern Kingdom of Israel around the year 750 BC. This date makes the prophetic utterance
of Amos the oldest written book of
prophecy in the Bible. It is sadly the
case that the first thing the prophets had to address was our idolatry of money
at the cost of our respect for God and the poor who are sold into slavery in
payment of paltry debts which had the value of a pair of sandals—the poor were considered just as worthless. Why do horrible injustices like this one,
which is so ancient, sound so contemporary?
Amos calls us to pay attention- "Hear this, you who trample upon the
needy!” Likewise, this deep listening to
the word of God in the parables is recommended by Our Lord and the Evangelist
in the Gospel of Luke. Today we are to
do that deep listening to the Parable of the Dishonest Steward.
A lot of ink has been spilled by
commentators trying to figure out if the Steward of today's gospel in forgiving
the debts of his master's borrowers was doing something dishonest or not.
Yet, from the get-go, we know that this wily steward is squandering his master's money and, once
he is caught, is not trying to convince anyone of his innocence. Just as last week we heard that the prodigal
son squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation, so now today this
cunning steward has been squandering his master's money probably in a similar
way. His only goal after being caught is to prevent himself from going from a
very remunerative and cushy position in the great estate of his master to
ending up a day laborer or, worse, a begger. The bottom line about him is in
the eighth verse of chapter 16 where the Lord of the estate commends the
“dishonest steward” for his shrewdness in feathering his own nest by abusing
the position the Lord had not yet publicly taken from him to reduce without
permission the debts owed to his Lord and master. The steward is dishonest from beginning to
end in the parable. The parable is
written in such a way that it is difficult to tell if the “Lord” who ironically
commends the dishonest steward at the end is the rich man of the parable or the
Lord Jesus who is telling the parable. That is, perhaps, intended.
A hint as to what might be going on is
found earlier in Luke where the Son of Man, Jesus, compares himself to a thief
who breaks into a house at an unexpected hour.
Well, perhaps it is that just as Jesus can refer to himself as a thief
for the sake of making a point, so can Jesus refer to us his followers as
“dishonest stewards.” Misusing his
not-yet-taken-away position, the dishonest steward imitated the largesse of his
great Lord and forgave substantial amounts of the indebtedness of all so that
he, the dishonest steward, would be
welcome in their homes after his dismissal.
Tongue in cheek, Jesus commends this cunning snake, this man of the
world, to us the children of light who mutatis mutandis are likewise called to
imitate the largesse of our great Lord and Father by forgiving the sins of
everyone in debt to us—as the Lucan version of the Lord's prayer clearly
obliges us to do--"Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone in debt to us”. It is only in being stewards of
forgiveness—whether of financial debts or sins--that we can come to understand,
to know the Father's forgiveness of our own sins through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Lord
and Savior who has ascended to his heavenly home draws us by the power of the
Spirit to ascend with him to what will be OUR heavenly home as well.
The Second Reading today tells us that God our Savior wills everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Our Lord in his love cannot wait for us to come under the roof of his heavenly home. Now, in this Eucharist, though we might feel unworthy, though we might even feel DISHONEST, he desires to be with us intimately under our roof to forgive us and heal our souls—to love us unconditionally. He knocks at our door. Let us turn, open to him, and welcome him. He says to us: "Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write PAID IN FULL. Now, let's have a banquet!
Photograph by Brother Daniel. Today's homily by Father Luke.
