Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
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:
The story is told about a man who dreamt that he was asked by the Lord if he was able to share his faith and if he was able to bring others closer to Him. The man said, I’m sorry I wasn’t able. Afterwards Jesus told the man, since you failed to share the faith and was not able to bring others closer to me I will take away everything that I’ve given you. The man bargained with Jesus to give him one more month before He is given his punishment and Jesus said yes.
In that one month he gave food to his poor neighbors, he brought to the hospital those who were sick and he built modest houses for his homeless neighbors. He told everyone that they’ve received from him was a gift from Jesus and in return Jesus wanted them to go to Mass, to read the bible and do good to their fellowmen.
We have in our gospel for this Sunday an unproductive steward who was told by his master that he would be loosing his job. The steward was obviously worried about his survival that’s why he arranged a meeting with his master’s two debtors. So he discounted all their debts, to the first one he said, pay only fifthly measures of olive oil instead of one hundred and to the second one he said, pay only eighty kors of wheat instead of one hundred kors of wheat.
The steward did this crafty move for the reason that he was hopeful that they would help him also when he is already out of job which was soon forthcoming. The master in our gospel commended the dishonest steward for doing this scheme.
All of us are mere stewards of everything that we have such as wealth, possession, intelligence and the like. All these years we may have been using all of these to serve our selfish ends only. We may have not thought yet of using these for the greater glory of God. For example, have we already harnessed our wealth and intelligence to bring others closer to Jesus? Have we already used the vast potential of cyberspace to spread our Christian faith?
Let us discard the me and me alone mentality for this is not our sole purpose in life. We must also be concerned with the welfare especially spiritual welfare of our fellowmen. If there’s a need for us to use our money and intelligence so that others may know Christ then by all means let us use it.
Let us not forget that we are mere stewards of what we have as such we must not allow ourselves to be controlled by it. Let us learn to share generously because it is in sharing what we have that we become productive and worthy stewards of the Lord.
Are you a productive and worthy steward of the Lord? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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