September 18, 2016

Bulletin
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Timothy 2: 1-8; Luke 16: 1-13
What is my attitude toward wealth? Do I want to be wealthy? Do I secretly wish that I would
win the lottery? When this thought comes to mind, I for one, think of how I could help my
family out. When I think more on this, many of my close family members I haven’t seen for
years and many my only contact is through the annual Christmas card exchange of ‘what’s been
happening’. I continue with my ‘wealth’ question: Do I feel that I am wealthy? Do I look at the
gifts that have all come from God as my absolute treasures? How am I at sharing these
‘treasures’? Do I have a tendency to hoard…or to save…of to ‘keep for a rainy day’?
Living the Word, Scripture Reflections and Commentaries for Sundays and Holy Days shares that
the focus of todays readings are Using Wisdom Wisely. They continue: “As with all of God’s gifts,
we can use the intelligence or insight we have been given (or have gained) for our own selfish purposes.
Or, in the divine image, we can use them for the benefit of others.”
The difficulty today comes from the interpretation of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel which has
confused scholars and teachers down through the years. How is it that the steward who Luke
describes “was wasting his goods” and caught in the act is praised by Jesus? He was about to be
fired and Jesus uses his action as right behavior. How can this be justified…what is Jesus trying
to tell us? We know that Jesus wasn’t forgiving dishonesty or irresponsibility. We know that
Jesus wasn’t promoting shady business practices. So what was His purpose and what message
can I gleam from all of these readings and apply them to myself and those I love?
One problem that scholars say has led to the misunderstanding is from verse 8, “And the master
commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.” The Greek word used for ‘dishonest’ is
adikias which also can be translated at ‘unjust’…perhaps we would use ‘unfair’ or ‘partial’ or
one-sided’. The culture at Jesus’ time will help: much of the land was owned by absentee
landlords who hired agents (stewards) to take care of all problems, to make sure the land was
producing good yield and profits for the owner. This agent had the authority to make binding
contracts which included interest rates. Now Jews were forbidden to take interest from other
Jews on loans and contractors but agents got around this by putting the interest in the contract.
The interest is where the stewards drew his salary. So today the steward in realizing that he was
going to get fired, just reduced the interest rate on each contract. The landlord had no idea what
the interest rate was just as long as he got his money. The steward in today’s Gospel reading
tells those who owed money that he was re-writing the contracts. In reality what he was doing
was just lowering his exorbitant commission or cancelling it totally (in some or all cases) and
rewriting the contracts. He just cancelled his profit. Now if he did get fired, he could go to
contractors and say that he was in need of a job and many would listen since they liked his
‘forgiveness’ and mercy’ and they sub-contracted their work too….so why not have a good
business manager. This was an all win—no lose situation. So what is Jesus teaching us? attentive in prayer. But the love that grows in me through meeting the Lord in quiet prayer must translate
into deeds of love. Saint Ignatius of Loyola says that ‘love is found in deeds rather than in words.’”