Luke 16: 1-13

Jesus said to his disciples:

A rich man once had a manager to take care of his business. But he was told that his manager was wasting money. So the rich man called him in and said, “What is this I hear about you? Tell me what you have done! You are no longer going to work for me.”

The manager said to himself, “What shall I do, now that my master is going to fire me? I can’t dig ditches, and I’m ashamed to beg. I know what I’ll do, so that people will welcome me into their homes after I’ve lost my job.”

Then one by one he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He asked the first one, “How much do you owe my master?”

“A hundred barrels of olive oil,” the man answered.

So the manager said, “Take your bill and sit down and quickly write ‘fifty’.”

The manager asked someone else who was in debt to his master, “How much do you owe?”

The man replied “A thousand bushels of wheat,”

The manager said, “Take your bill and write ‘eight hundred’.”

The master praised his dishonest manager for looking out for himself so well. That’s how it is! The people of this world look out for themselves better than the people who belong to the light.

My disciples, I tell you to use wicked wealth to make friends for yourselves. Then when it is gone, you will be welcomed into an eternal home. Anyone who can be trusted in little matters can also be trusted in important matters. But anyone who is dishonest in little matters will be dishonest in important matters. If you cannot be trusted with this wicked wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? And if you cannot be trusted with what belongs to someone else, who will give you something that will be your own? You cannot be the slave of two masters. You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than to the other. You cannot serve God and money.

 

Gospel Reflection

It’s only with the threat of losing his comfortable lifestyle that the steward realises he has no contingency plan, no future.

He knows his limits, so changes his strategies to buy friends and influence people. And with such expertise that the Master has to appreciate how the steward provides for his future.

Knowing that we live in a world of status and achievement it is natural for us to use what we have to make a good life for ourselves but we have to learn that it is not just about what we want. As they say ‘you can’t take it with you’.

We do live in the world but we don’t have to be dictated to by it; we don’t have to be part of the exploitation. In our everyday life we can use what we have, what we know, what we do and we can make change.

We can choose where our time is spent, where our money is spent.

We can use the system to question the system. There are so many things you can only change from the inside. Use your gifts and be the change.