Homily 25th Ordinary Time Cycle C
September 22, 2019
In today’s Gospel we hear what is
called The parable of the “dishonest” steward.
Normally in church, dishonesty is
held up as something BAD. And yet this
guy is held up as an example, which is confusing at best and disconcerting at
worst. But it is not his dishonesty that
is at the heart of the parable. What if –
instead of dishonest - we called him “enterprising” or “ambitious”, or
“prudent”, or a man of “initiative”?
True, his means were less than honest, but his enterprising spirit is highlighted,
and is almost laudable.
I am reminded
of an incident that occurred in a parish in Florida. A gentleman went to the pastor and said that
he was a coin collector, and he would like to purchase all the coins that came
in the church collection each week, so he could search them for collectable
coins. The parish would not have to
worry about rolling the coins or lugging the coins to the bank each week. They would just have to run them through the
counter and then the man would give the church a check for the amount of the
coin. And that is what the parish
did.
This continued
for a number of weeks until one week the amount in coin was over $250.00
dollars. As usual the coin collector
wrote a check for that amount. Later,
the IRS contacted the church for verification of this “donation”. It seems the so-called “coin collector” was
actually going around to all the churches in the area, the Baptists and
Methodists and everyone else, buying their coin, making a check out to the
church and then claiming all these checks as charitable donations on his income
tax. He was getting credit for the
donation but never making it. Pretty
clever, huh? [And No we don’t sell our
coins. ]
When you hear
of a scheme like this, ¿don’t you often
think that if this person had put as much inventiveness and creativity - that
much imagination and enterprise - into doing something good and honest, how
much good he could have done?
Well, that is
what our parable is about today. Jesus
tells us: “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.” In other words, the
worldly guys are more industrious at doing worldly things than the spiritual
guys (presumably that is us) are at doing good things.
The steward in the Gospel took the
initiative when confronted with a threat.
Rather than stew and fret over the danger, he did something to protect
himself, to feather his nest, to insure his future well-being. He was enterprising!
It is that
initiative, that ambition, that enterprise that Jesus is commending to us for
the spiritual life in today’s parable.
We are to be that “prudent” in seeking the spiritual advantage.
If someone was perceptive enough to
invest in Amazon when it first went public, we say that he or she is smart
person. If presented with a similar
opportunity today we would want to take advantage of it. So if that is true for passing wealth that we
cannot take with us when we die, then should we not be all the more eager and
vigilant to take opportunities to grow in spiritual wealth, in wealth that
never depreciates and that lasts for all eternity? Of
course!
Are you on the
lookout for opportunities to increase your spiritual nest-egg, to maximize your
eternal 401K? All day long these opportunities to strike it
spiritually rich are there. How often
do we go out of our way to compliment someone, or build up someone who is down
or hurting? How about turning off the TV
for half an hour and giving a call to someone who’d like to hear from you? That is seizing the initiative.
Every day we
have lots of opportunities to console, to forgive, to heal, to practice
generosity and honesty and patience, to work for justice. When is the last time you wrote to your
elected representatives about a matter of justice in legislation? That is a great way to improve your spiritual
“bottom line”. What about feeding the
hungry, clothing the naked, educating the ignorant, visiting the sick and
imprisoned, praying for the suffering?
All the spiritual and corporal works of mercy are fantastic “spiritual
investment opportunities!”
Do we seek
them out? Do we take initiative in pursuing
them? Are we, as St. Paul urges us to be,
“ambitious for the higher gifts?” (1
Cor 13)
Today’s
parable is uncomfortable, disturbing, even shocking. It is meant to be, in order to shake us out
of spiritual complacency and to show initiative in the spiritual life, to be
ambitious for the higher gifts. "For the
children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation
than are the children of light.” And that is not
right. We have to become as prudent, as
ambitious, as filled with initiative in the spiritual life as all the Wall
Street mavens are in seeking physical wealth, and even more.
Be ambitious!
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