Friday in the 31st Week of Ordinary Time, November 8, 2024

Luke 16, 1-8

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 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.’ Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ 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 the children of light.”

This parable, forming today’s Gospel Reading, directly follows the Lord’s Parable of the Prodigal Son in St. Luke’s Gospel.

“A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property.”  In several of the Lord’s parables we find characters we can identify with or whom we can admire.  The fact that the two main characters in this parable seem either dishonest or commending dishonesty makes it difficult to do this and even makes the parable hard to understand.  Now, a man in the position of steward has responsibility of managing his master’s property.  He would buy and sell livestock for him, for instance.  The master in this parable seems to largely allow his steward a free hand in this, evidently not even looking over his records.  Finally, someone, probably a servant, brought the steward’s squandering to the master’s attention.  “You can no longer be my steward.”  The master fully trusts the word of the one who brought the accusation.  Perhaps he had wondered occasionally why his property was dwindling, why fewer cattle, sheep, and goats were to be seen in his pastures and fields, and the squandering is not hard to believe.  The master does not ask the steward for an explanation; his mind is made up and the steward has to go.

“What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?”  The steward recognizes that he will never again secure a position as steward, for his former master will hardly give him a letter of reference.  The choices before him cause dismay.  He realizes that he cannot perform manual labor, the only kind of work he could get now, so all that remained was the hard and humiliating life of begging.  Appalled, his mind works feverishly for any alternative.  A clever man, he hits upon a plan: he ingratiates himself with his master’s creditors so that they would be inclined to offer him hospitality after he is fired.  He could even tell them that he was fired precisely because he cut their debt to his former master.  That would keep him fed and sheltered for at least the near future.

“Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.”  This gives us an idea of the methods the steward used in squandering his master’s property, and his readiness at using them.  Although the steward does not eliminate the whole debt, he gives a significant discount.  Perhaps he feared severe punishment if he wrote it off entirely.  “And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.”  The prudence shows itself in two ways: the steward thinking of his future while he still had the power to act; then concocting and carrying out his scheme.  He looks ahead while many others would simply beg the master to be forgiven, or who would simply leave his employ with no plan.

“The children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.”  The lesson the Lord Jesus draws from his parable seems obscure to us.  We should think in terms of applying foresight to our situation, as when the Lord says, “For which of you, having a mind to build a tower, does not first sit down and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he has the wherewithal to finish it?” (Luke 14, 28).  We have heaven and life with Jesus as our goal.  Foresight tells us we will face all sorts of obstacles.  Therefore, we go to Mass, obey the commandments, receive the sacraments, perform good works, pray, and ask others for their prayers.  We know what we need to do.  And then foresight enables us to plan how we are going to do these things.  We must have a concrete plan.  Vague ideas do not get us to heaven.  The Lord is saying that we need to be more like the man trying to save himself from a life of destitution in this respect.  Salvation is not magic.  We have to cooperate with the graces and the opportunities the Lord offers us.