Parable of the unjust steward

This is a parable about stewardship. We have been given a bit of God’s harvest and Jesus is asking us today to examine ourselves how we are looking after it. We are at his service and we could be a bit easygoing, complacent or indifferent. It doesn’t matter if we are in charge of a big field, or we are only responsible for a small part of God’s vineyard. The important thing is to look after it well, and give a good account of our stewardship. The master commended the dishonest steward for acting prudently. Saint Augustine says that Jesus proposed this parable not to praise the dishonest servant, but to have an eye on the future. We should have the servant’s determination to secure our eternal reward. We cannot forget that we are passing by and eternity is all that matters.

The servant was a smart forward thinking man. I can imagine him well dressed, smooth and articulate. Jesus complains that “the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” We know many people who put a lot of time and effort into their worldly affairs. They make unbelievable sacrifices to acquire more wealth, power or fame. We should have a similar ambition, to put the same amount of effortinto the service of God. Saint Josemaria says: “What zeal men put into their earthly affairs! When you and I put the same zeal into the affairs of our soul, then we’ll have a living and working faith.”

“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 we compare the things of this world with the events of the other life, we realise that our sacrifices are nothing compared with the reward promised. But because we cannot see the promised land, we have nothing to compare it to. Everything we have is a gift from God, and we are his stewards, who sooner or later will have to render an account to him.

What is behind this parable is a common, human vice: laziness. We are not good stewards of God’s gifts because we are lazy. It is a hidden defect that we don’t talk much about, but affects all of us; we are lazy in one way or another. We do what we shouldn’t do and we don’t do what we should be doing. We could be very active but not in what’s important.

“No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.” They say that we can only have one Lord; we cannot be schizophrenics. We need to choose the boss we want to love. “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Mammon is a Hebrew word for riches or wealth. We cannot allow money to become our god, or let the objective of our life become the accumulation of the greatest number of goods and the highest level of comfort. The Prophet Amos thunders against the exploitation of the poor in the First Reading of today’s Mass. We cannot forget the poor. We may be unjust with our own goods, but we must be honest with other people’s money.

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