Reflections on Scripture Twenty-Fifth Sunday Gospel C

By 9:45 AM




Jesus said to his disciples, "A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’

The squandering seems to have been that he used his masters goods to enhance himself. If the person owed fifty bushels of wheat, he made the bill out for seventy-five. The extra twenty five was his personal profit. He was defrauding the purchaser for his own advantage.
Are we guilty of small dishonest practices in our lives?
The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’
This was equivalent to about 800 gallons. He really owed 400 gallons and the steward would profit from the other 400. Then to another the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’
The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’
He reduced the amount owed to the original from 1000 bushels to 800 bushels.
He appeared to be generous but in effect he was not exacting his personal commission, which he had no right to. In doing so, he ingratiated himself to his master’s debtors.
And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. "For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 
Why are the children of the world more prudent than the children of the light?
What is the virtue of prudence? Prudence is the virtue "which disposes a person to discern the good and choose the correct means to accomplish it."
I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
What do you think Jesus means by this saying? The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?
How trustworthy are we in the things given to us by God? How prudent are we in caring for the things that are God’s No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon."

As we evaluate our lives, who are we serving? Do we find ourselves torn at times? What is God asking of us?

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