If we ever had any thoughts that the Christian life should separate us from the world, then today’s readings tell us otherwise. The prophet Amos in the first reading addresses the people with strong words. The scene he describes is right there in the market place where the people are milling around trying to buy their food. He points to the salesperson whose scales have been tampered with so that they always weigh just a little bit heavier than the true weight. When the poor come to buy their food they end up paying more than they should and find themselves struggling to provide food for their hungry children. The prophet also points to the full bags of grain, indicating that there is plenty to feed the whole town, and asking why some people still go hungry. It is not because of lack of grain that they go hungry but because they cannot afford it. They end up having to rely on the scraps of wheat or even just the husks. The good wheat is kept for the wealthy. The prophet is not suggesting that they should abandon commercial activities, but rather that they should do them with justice and fairness.
Jesus keeps these themes alive in the gospel parable, but in a way that we do not expect. I imagine that the crowds were expecting Jesus to roundly condemn the untrustworthy steward. After all, he could be faulted on several fronts. He had mismanaged his master’s property, allowed it to run into debt, and had probably siphoned off a large share of the profits into his own pocket. Then, to compound his error, once he was told that he was going to be dismissed he set about to win friends by calling in his master’s debtors, and in what was probably a fraudulent move began to reduce the size of their debt. This man doesn’t seem to have much to recommend him.
I’m sure the crowd is shocked as the parable unfolds. Jesus ends up praising the untrustworthy steward. I think we need to be clear as to what Jesus was praising. He was certainly not praising him for his dishonesty. Rather he was drawing attention to his cleverness in dealing with the problem. He was facing a real crisis: he knew that he was going to lose his managerial position and with it not only his income but also his personal security and prestige. If he was going to survive he would have to act quickly. He was no dreamer; he was realistic enough to know that he didn’t have the strength to go out and get a labouring job; he was honest enough to know that he was a proud man and could not shame himself by begging in the streets. This is why he comes up with the plan to buy a few friends who might think of him or remember him when he finds himself destitute. Yes, all of this seems very selfish, and he is acting from the worst of motives, but Jesus praises him because he was realistic, because he recognised the crisis he was facing and because he made an effort to do something to respond to it. Jesus praises him for his astuteness and his prudence.
I think Jesus deliberately wanted to shock his listeners into considering how they conducted their business, especially in the light of his preaching about the coming kingdom of God. Throughout his ministry he had been challenging the way they thought about God and knew God, and this was having serious consequences for the way they lived their lives, especially in their treatment of others. If they were truly hearing his message then they would be forced to give a lot of consideration to the way they treated the poor and the sick, to the way they perceived others in their society who were regarded as sinners and were condemned and ostracised. They would be challenged to allow their own lives to reflect something of the quality of God’s compassion and mercy; they would be challenged to recognise their own dependence on God. In other words, the preaching of the gospel by Jesus was creating a crisis in their lives far more serious than that faced by the unjust, dishonest steward.
As we listen to the gospel each week and make an effort to live the values of our Christian faith, we can still live from week to week without it having too much of an impact on our lives. Yet I think that for all of us there are key moments in life when we become aware that if we are going to keep listening to the gospel then we must do something about it in the concrete circumstances of our daily lives. This is particularly the case for the youth. You have your whole life before you but the choices you make today will affect the way you live into the future. Perhaps the biggest challenge most people face is when they realise that the faith aspect of life is closely connected to the other decisions they make in life. All of us are making choices everyday. As we listen to the Word of God we can be nudged to realise that all of our choices have some sort of faith dimension. This goes right down to the choices we make about what we eat, how we treat people, how we act as stewards of the world God has created. Let’s take to heart Jesus’ challenge to the crowd in today’s gospel: be astute, be prudent, recognise what is going on and make decisions about your own life, your own future. Even the dishonest steward did this.
Fr. Gerard Kelly
