Amos 8:4-7/ Psalm: 112(113):1-2, 4-8/1 Timothy 2:1-8/ Luke 16:1-13
Fr. Daniel Evbotokhai
THE CRAFTY STEWARD
Luke 16:1-13 presents us with the parable of the Crafty Steward. Here was a steward who had neglected his duties and at the point of being dismissed he devised a crafty means to secure his future. This is not to extol dishonesty or craftiness rather Christ wants us to be honest stewards and who can genuinely use their resources to secure eternal life. Therefore, rather than being crafty let us be honest and generous. Rather than being fake be real, do not be manipulative be genuine and honest so that when at last we are dismissed from this world we shall find a place to live. Just as the owner said to the dishonest steward “Give an accounting of your management” at the end of our lives, we shall give account to God.
A steward is employed to look after the assets of a manager. He is a responsible administrator of the owner’s property. We are all stewards of some possessions and talents. But what kind of stewards are we? The man in the parable was regarded as a crafty or dishonest steward, many of us have become very dishonest not only over goods given to us but also over what is our very own. Some persons just have problem with accountability. The goal of this parable is to make us honest stewards. If we are honest then the master will say to us ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master!’ (Matt. 25:23).
Again, this parable presents us with six basic sayings of Jesus (Luke 16:8-13). They are as follow; “be astute”; “the tent of eternity”; “little things and great things”; “tainted and genuine riches”; “what is not yours and what is your very own” and lastly “a slave cannot serve two masters”. From these sayings we can draw further lessons.
Be Astute: To be astute is to be judicious, to have good judgment and to be wise. We have to be wise the way we use wealth. If we are not wise about the use of wealth, wealth will use us. Jesus wants us to have wealth but he does not want wealth to have us. Possessions are not sin in themselves, rather they are great responsibility and those who use them to serve others discharge their responsibility wisely. No one dies or goes to the grave with his possessions. Job 1:21 says; naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return. So while on earth let us be astute with possessions then the Lord will give us true wealth – eternal life.
To be astute should not be understood negatively. Don’t think you are clever when you cheat others or you are smart because you were not caught. You may outsmart others but you cannot outsmart God on the last day. To be astute therefore is to do that which is true, sincere and genuine in order to secure eternal life. Amos 8:4-7 in the first reading, provides one of the Old Testament’s strongest arguments in favor of social justice because of the poor’s oppression. They became rich by cheating the poor, had no respect for ‘holy days’ and they busied themselves with their own selfish interests. Some persons are rich today because they cheated or duped others. I don’t deny genuine riches and God’s favour; but if it were to be our salary alone without cheats, blockings, bribe and injustice some of us will not be parading buildings, cars, and expensive wears. Nevertheless, just as Paul admonished Timothy in the second reading, let us continue to pray for all those in authority especially men of God that they might not lose sight of their calling because of material possessions, fear or favour.
Trustworthiness: Those who can be trusted with little things can be trusted with great things. One of the marks of a good steward is trust. No one will leave his store to a sales girl or boy that is not trusted. If you do that you risk your business. To be trustworthy is to be reliable. Our faithfulness in little task is the best proof for our faithfulness or unfaithfulness in bigger tasks. Little things are little things but from them the greatest often grow. We should not joke with those little things under our care; it may just be your family, your office, or your pious society. The attitude you display in these places determines if we can be entrusted with the kingdom.
Two masters: Jesus lays down the rule; no slave can serve two masters. Traditionally, a master possesses a slave totally. A slave has no time of his own. Nowadays people do two jobs, they augment their income, so you get to see lecturers who are equally businessmen or bankers who are into baking. Basically, people augment their income through spare-time occupations. In the same vein, some of us have reduce the worship of God to this level, we want to pursue God and pursue wealth; we want to worship God and mammon. Beloved, seek God first and his kingdom and every other thing shall be added (Matt6:33). Christianity is not a spare-time job. Once we choose to serve God every moment of our time and life must be lived in service to God. You can be a part-time student but you can’t be a part-time Christian.
Let us pray
O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbor, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Fr. Paul Oredipe
NOONE CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS
“You cannot serve God and mammon.”
The story of the dishonest steward in today’s gospel is somehow ambiguous and quite subtle. The steward is being praised for his trickery and dishonesty. This is the least edifying. The steward knowing that he was about to be dismissed, quickly began to make arrangements for his future security. What the master admire in this steward is not the line of conduct but the boldness, the decisiveness, and resourcefulness of the steward who made the most of a difficult situation in an intelligent way.
Why did Jesus propose this parable?
Obviously it is not because that steward was a model or example for us to imitate. Nonetheless there is something we can learn from this worldly-wise steward. In the first place, he had an eye to the future and secondly he was firmly resolved in his determination. He did not give into discouragement.
Jesus could have stopped there. The message would have been general enough and we could have drawn suitable concrete applications from it. But He chooses to go on and to spell out specifically in what area we are to show resourcefulness and boldness in the conduct of our lives. He suddenly urges his disciples: “use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity”.
Jesus uses the example of this smart steward in his master’s business to teach us the need to be smart in the Lord’s service and in executing our duties. Is it any wonder why He tells his disciples when he sent them out saying “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Mathew 10:16).
Truly and indeed, we will not always have worldly goods of money to ensure our own security. At some point – the point of death? – they will fail us. But if we have distributed our worldly goods and shared them with others, we would have done a good deed that will recommend us favourably to our heavenly Father.
Besides the emphasis on the boldness and intelligence of the steward, his very way of acting becomes the occasion for a lesson. He spread the money around so as to be free of want later on. We too need to detach ourselves from our wealth in order to be able to share in the kingdom.
The story of a man: Whenever he wakes up, the first thing he says is “Oh another day, another dollar” called A.D.A.D. But then the D-day comes. At last he died in his sleep one night and there indeed was another day but there was no dollar.
There is no doubt that money and other worldly goods have great seductive power. And when this power is given free rein because man succumbs to it, then we get the terrible disorders with which we are all familiar.
The prophet Amos describes them in our first reading today. He spells out the calculating designs of the rich man who is caught under the sway of money and worldly goods. He plots how to accumulate more by robbing and grinding down the poor. Unjust business practices are clearly labeled as exploitative. The text by the prophet is concrete enough to rule out any need for further comments. We know only too well how financial interests exploit and mutilate man. Helder Camara was absolutely right when he wrote that: “Poverty makes a person subhuman; excess of wealth makes a person inhuman”.
Jesus went on to remind us about being trusted with money and worldly goods. To the extent that we cannot be trusted with elusive worldly goods and wealth, to the extent that these things dominate our lives, we cannot be trusted with anything. Hence we cannot be granted lasting goods. In so far as we are dominated by worldly goods, our liberty is enchained. And this lack of liberty pulls us down and keeps us out of the kingdom.
So worldly goods and money are untrustworthy to the extent that they dominate us, but that does not authorize us to neglect them. They can have tragic consequences for those who are victimized by them, but, again, that does not mean we are supposed to give up their use.
On the one hand, money is a part of our lives, and it would be absurd to deny that fact. On the other hand, we must observe certain guidelines in using it. Otherwise we will fail to operate properly in our human life and be rendered unworthy of the kingdom.
Money must be mastered; it cannot be allowed to master us in the slightest way. If it does, it will spoil everything. In short, it must be administered so that it can be distributed. For as it is said: “money is a good servant but a bad master”.
Like the steward, we must have our eyes fixed to our future home and also have the determination, the zeal to reach it. We have only one Lord. We must serve Him with all our heart, with the natural gifts He himself has given us, using every licit means throughout our entire life. We must direct everything toward Him; our work, our plans, our leisure, without holding anything back. The sincere Christian does not devote one part of his attention to God and another to the business of this world. He must convert both into the service of God and neighbor by struggling to have rectitude of intention, by living the virtues of justice and charity.
That is quite clear and straight. However, we know that it is not that easy to practice. We know from experience that knowledge is not enough, that the power of money and worldly goods will continue to seduce us in one way or another.
Perhaps it is because of this that St. Paul, in the second reading asks us to pray for “everyone, and especially for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live religious and reverent lives in peace and quite”, thus being able to “reach full knowledge of the truth”.
Events in our world show that we live in difficult and precarious times. Jesus is asking us to use the opportunities we have to find God and be at peace with humanity. We do not have to wait, like the dishonest steward for a last minute display of smartness to fix our eternal concerns. The time to be smart is now (2 Cor. 6:2). The smart steward used what he could not keep to get what he needed so badly, namely, friendship with his business associates. We should likewise invest all our temporal and spiritual resources to gain the only one thing that matters in the end, that is, the kingdom of God.
Jesus will soon give himself to us as our nourishment. Let us ask Him to give us the strength we need to make this choice and to accept the detachments it will entail.
*Things that Money cannot Buy*
Think money is the answer to all your problems?
Think Again.
It can buy a house, but not a Home.
It can buy you a bed, but not Sleep.
It can buy a clock, but not Time.
It can buy a book, but not Knowledge.
It can buy a position, but not Respect.
It can buy medicine, but not Health.
It can buy blood, but not Life.
And most of all it can buy candlelight dinners, but not Love.
The moral of today’s gospel is this – by all means use money to make life easier and, perhaps even in some strange way, potentially more spiritual. But do not let it chain you down. One day you will leave this world, perhaps sooner rather than later. Then you will be called to give a precise and detailed account of your stewardship. Did you use your money for your own comfort or for the good of others?
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
