Gospel Reflection Sept 21 – Deacon Paul Zemanek
Sunday, September 21
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 16: 1-13
Gospel:
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.”
Gospel Reflection:
Friends, in our passage from Scripture today, it can be one of the most troubling in the Bible and it can be a challenging one for us. For what could Jesus possibly be thinking by praising a dishonest steward? Why would Jesus be telling us that we should be like a man who clearly stole property that did not belong to him? How can Jesus possibly be praising this steward for being so sly and for being so shrewd?
Well, in today’s parable, The Unjust Steward, the lesson by Jesus is most certainly not one that says that we should be dishonest, but it is instead a lesson that Jesus is wanting us to use all of the means that we have at our disposal to prepare for our eternal home.
Where the steward in our story today was “astute” at preparing for his impending unemployment, Jesus was trying to get his followers to use that very same level of “astuteness” that they use in their own lives and be astute enough to “prepare for their eternal life.” And so friends, how “astute” have you been in living out your own lives so that you might gain “eternal life” with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?
Deacon Paul Zemanek