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Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
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.”
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Reflection:
A businessman that got sick with a severe ailment bargained with the Lord
so that he could be healed. He said to the Lord, “Heal me o Lord and I will
give away the riches that I have. I will not focus anymore on growing my
business empire. What I would focus on is to give my riches to those who are in
need of it.” The businessman was miraculously healed thus he fulfilled his
promise to the Lord.
What is keeping you busy right now? Many of us are so busy with our own
selfish issues like growing our wealth that we sacrifice our health over it. We
also sacrifice our concern for the poor to feed our self-serving concerns. But
what would we gain if we are only focused on ourselves? Nothing except the
bloating of our egos.
In the gospel for this Sunday, when the steward was notified that he would
be fired by his master from his stewardship. The steward decided to make a
positive impact on the lives of his master’s debtors. He did this by lessening
the amount of the debt that they had with his master.
We are also mere stewards of the things that we have in this world as
such we too could be fired anytime as well. That firing might come in the form
of sudden sickness or even sudden death. What if we are not prepared when that
firing comes? What would happen to our souls and where would we end up?
But we are still alive, thus we still have time to change our mindsets.
From the mindset of I, Me and Myself why not change that mindset and focus it
towards our poor relatives, neighbors and friends? Jesus would surely commend
us if we do so.- Marino J. Dasmarinas
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