From pastor’s desk on the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year C
When you read this Sunday’s gospel passage, you may be surprised by the parable that seems to encourage cheating. It is the parable of a dishonest steward and the master who eventually praises his steward’s shrewdness. Perhaps you immediately may ask this question: What’s the point, Jesus?! Are you teaching us to deceive others? — certainly not. Our Blessed Lord never teaches us to do anything contrary to the Commandments. Rather, by means of the parables, Jesus makes us think of the things that are important for our salvation which we otherwise would overlook. In Jesus’s preaching, the parables are the stories with a moral, that are supposed to help us open our hearts and minds to the Divine Revelation.
In order to understand this peculiar parable, we must first remember that Our Lord Jesus does not instruct us about mere human relationships, but about how God the Father relates to His people through His Son. A dishonest steward is each and every one of us as long as we live for our life here on earth. It is every sinner who is in debt to the Landlord, who is God Himself. There are a few points that we should take from this parable.
First, Jesus makes us aware that we are all in debt to God. We have been endowed with so much good - our very life, talents, relationships, education, faith, etc., which we often waste because of our sinful way of living. All these great treasures are given to us to use for the greater good of building up the Kingdom of God. Yet, we often simply mismanage them or lose them altogether. There is no way we can repay God for what we have received from Him.
Second, we must use well all that we have to “secure” our salvation. We must do it promptly while remembering that very soon we too may stand before the Divine Judge and the Landlord who will ask us: “What did you do with all I have given you?” Our Blessed Lord Jesus, advises us that we should act prudently especially while we are dealing with our brothers and sisters, who are also indebted to the landlord. We try to help them to “diminish” their debt while taking some burdens upon ourselves. We do so also by forgiving them what they owe us (think of the parable of the King and unmerciful servant). Ultimately, we have to remember that it was Jesus, the Son of God, who “cheated” death and took all our debts upon Himself and paid the price on the Cross. It is Christ who acts most prudently while dying for us on the cross.
Finally, the Master praises his dishonest steward not so much for his cheating but for the love and mercy he showed toward his fellow citizens. Maybe this is the greatest point of this parable: The Master cares more for his people than for the things both material and spiritual, that were entrusted to his servants. Our Divine Landlord —the Triune God—wants the salvation of all, and we too, should care for his people more than for material things. Jesus exhorts us to use the virtue of prudence in order to “secure” our salvation, not our well-being on earth.
I pray that you will discover how much we are indebted to the Lord and that we may open our hearts to the needs of our brothers and sisters around us.
Have a blessed week. Fr. Janusz Mocarski, pastor