25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Amos 8:4-7; 1 Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
19 Sep 2010
Today we have Jesus' most controversial parable about the unjust steward, who was dismissed by his boss and worked to secure his uncertain future by reducing by fifty or twenty per cent the debts owed to his master. The parable does not suggest that he was entitled to do this and concludes with the master commending his former steward for his energy and his astuteness.
I have always viewed this story through good Catholic spectacles and was never tempted to believe that Jesus was commending dishonesty, even when it might not have been too clear to me what Our Lord was recommending.
Across the centuries however individuals have been scandalized and we can find more debate and discussion here than on any other parable.
We know that Constantine was the first Christian emperor, one of a long line, who granted religious freedom to Christians in 313 with the Edict of Milan. Most of the succeeding emperors were increasingly favourable to Church interests rather than religiously neutral, but as Christians were probably only one-seventh of the population at the time of Constantine, there was considerable pagan opposition to the Church for many generations, often led by the senatorial elite. Country people too were usually slower to convert than city dwellers.
One emperor who was bitterly hostile and attempted to restore paganism and destroy Christianity by every means just short of outright persecution was Julian the Apostate, the nephew of Constantine the Great, who ruled briefly from 361-363. We were fortunate that he was killed by a Persian arrow, in one of the many battles with the Romans' great Eastern rival, the Persian Empire.
Julian believed that the parable of a just steward praising a scoundrel was evidence of the inferiority of the Christian faith and its founder!
It is interesting to note that all of the expert commentators, ranging from the orthodox to the liberal sceptics, believe that this parable was spoken by Our Lord, although there is some dispute whether the comment about the children of this world being more astute than the children of light was spoken by Jesus in this instance or brought here from some other situation by Luke himself.
We should be clear that the parable in many ways follows the patterns we find generally in Jesus' parables. Apart from the fact that the point of many parables is somewhat unclear and puzzling (which helps explain the difficulties primary school children have in understanding them), Jesus usually avoids having unambiguously good people as the models in his stories. The Good Samaritan is the most obvious exception, although he is unacceptable and unexpected because he belongs to a despised group of foreigners; although the prodigal son, the sinful tax collector in the temple, the labourer who arrived to work at the last hour, the man who bought the field knowing a treasure was hidden there, the judge who feared neither God nor man, are all disreputable in some way or other.
Jesus used contrasts to make his point, so the dishonesty of the steward is to be emphasised not ignored. If this crook could realise his predicament and act decisively to remedy his situation, how much more important it is for good people to act energetically and seize their opportunities. The dishonest steward is not to be imitated in every way, but in one respect only.
Our Lord wanted to provoke his listeners into pondering their situations, to go below their usual surface reactions, to enter into the life of grace and there to find truth and embrace commitment.
Everyone at some stage or other find themselves in a crisis situation, either through their own sins or bad judgement or even through factors entirely beyond their control. We need to be able to react properly to our own failures, not to sulk by enjoying our misfortune, not to give up and abandon hope of improving but to search energetically and imaginatively for solutions. Probably the message from Luke's gospel is never to lose heart, never to give into despair about one's own failures or the failures of others.
And a final word about money, that tainted thing, which in itself is not one of heavens riches, but can be used to come closer to God and for the work of the Kingdom. What is clear in the gospel and in everyday life is that no-one can be the slave of both God and money. We have to choose.
Personal prosperity is no guarantee that we will be generous and being short of money is no guarantee that we will avoid greediness. Because we are short of means or short of cash can become an easy and deceitful excuse for us not to be generous.
To my initial surprise I discovered that Our Lord spoke against the dangers of riches more frequently than he spoke against hypocrisy. Long journeys start with small steps and fidelity in small matters will stand us in good stead in times of stiffer trial. This is true when we are handling with money.
We should always try to be generous regularly. But if we regularly find ourselves in a situation where we say we would like to help but cannot afford to do so at this moment then we should examine our hearts very carefully indeed.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
