Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Acting in Godly Fashion
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Before mass: On Sundays of the Year the 1st reading from the OT correlates with the gospel [Lectionary for Sundays and Solemnities, Introduction, #67]. It may harmonize, and Jesus fulfills or completes it.
It may contrast—as today: Amos condemned cheats and unfaithful use of possessions. Jesus taught their faithful use to his followers. Faithful, reliable, trustworthy, prudent—even shrewd—translate the same word Luke used in today’s gospel.
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Prophet Amos denounced hypocrisy, injustice and the “hollow prosperity of [Israel’s] Northern Kingdom.”1 At its celebrations of the new moon, business ceased. Some merchants itched to use their adjusted weights and fix their scales for cheating! Deceit in commerce is as old as humans. Long before Amos, even before Abraham an ancient Mesopotamian “hymn…to the…patron of justice and righteousness, contrast[ed] “the merchant who practices trickery as he holds the balances, who uses two sets of weights” with “the honest merchant who holds the balances and gives good weight.”2 Relationships with others as well as with wealth change us; and we are always at risk of idolizing, elevating someone or something too highly.
Relationship-change is nothing to fear. People have made us who we are; we allowed them to do that by being vulnerable. Relationships turn on that risk. We can recall a change or two that did not profit us well. They remind us to choose well because relationships change us.
Jesus knew that well. With his parable of the dishonest manager Jesus disclosed idolizing wealth closes us to his good news. Using wealth faithfully opens us to God and to others.
Many note two features in the parable: dishonesty and commending. Jesus’ summary to his disciples may confuse us: the master commended that dishonest manager for acting prudently. Jesus did not undo the Seventh Commandment, You shall not steal, with his parable. When we note the way the manager handled the crisis he faced when he was found out, Jesus’ summary is clearer.
Managers were stewards of households; house-holders trusted their managers. The dishonest manager violated trust placed in him by wasting the householder’s possessions. His I know what I shall do… sounds matter of fact; yet it communicates sudden insight, “a burst of daylight to the puzzled, darkened man: I’ve got it, I see into it now!”3 His response to his self-caused crisis guaranteed his acceptance by those whose payments he reduced. One can hear his master mutter, “I’ve got to hand it to him....”
Jesus regularly taught and encouraged his disciples to be prudent—recall be prudent as serpents: same word translated shrewdly4: act prudently on behalf of the gospel. With this parable Jesus encouraged we act as prudently, faithfully, reliably with our wealth as the dishonest manager did in his interests. Prudent use not self-serving use.
Jesus’ now-unclear sayings closing his parable convey what prudent acting looks like: faithful/reliable in something tiny, faithful/reliable in something greater; dishonest in something tiny, dishonest in something greater. That which is tiny refers to possessions; that which is greater refers to us entrusting ourselves to God, who is most faithful, reliable, trustworthy. Relying on possessions and wealth as though they cannot fail, as if they are always reliable; treating them as entitlements not gifts makes possessions and wealth an idol—dishonest wealth. Jesus personified it with the name Mammon.
Both our ever-reliable God and Mammon pull at us. From God to Mammon is always a tiny step. Our use of possessions indicates with whom we are in relationship, God or Mammon. Aligning with God lets us hold our wealth more freely and desire to help others. Our sense of God gifting us increases our confidence to do so. Appreciating the things of the world as gifts God gives us frees us to exercise stewardship of the world around us. To do it well, to do it with others; relying more on God as we do it.
In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week
- Consider your gifts; consider the Trinity lavishing them on you.
- Ask Sts. Paul and Timothy to present you to Jesus.
- Allow your gifts to float to the surfaces of your heart and mind
- the roof over your head
- clean water to drink and in which to bathe
- significant people in your life
- your home
- your school
- your job
- Savour each and thank Jesus for it.
- Ask Jesus for grace to savour your gifts more deeply and notice them as ways Jesus personally loves you.
- Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. It reminds us that all we have is divine gift; and it shapes our hearts to use them more reliably, more prudently and more faithfully.
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- New American Bible introduction to the Book of Amos.
- Quoted in W. Gunther Plaut and David E. Stein, The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Revised; Accordance electronic ed. (New York: Union for Reform Judaism, 2006), pp. 654-655.
- A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Accordance electronic ed. (Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 2001), paragraph 2068.
- Matthew 10.16. Luke used the same Greek word, meaning faithful, reliable, credible, trustworthy.
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Wiki-images by: Prophet Amos PD-US ;Andrey Mironov Dishonest Manager. CC BY-SA 4.0
