Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Bishop Glen John Provost
Bishop of Lake Charles
September 22, 2013
“No servant can serve two masters.” Luke 16:13
I wonder what would have happened in the Gospel were it to take place in the United States today. A rich landowner receives reports that his manager is abusing his property on wasteful spending. In the Gospel the employer demands an accounting and fires the dishonest employee without so much as an explanation. Today, in this country, the employee might have thought himself a victim. He would have called a lawyer to pursue his rights. He might have reported the employer as an equal employment offender and filed charges against him with a federal agency. But Jesus says this is not what the employee did. This employee was no victim.
Instead, the employee called in debtors who owed the rich man produce from his farms. In those days, a manager always charged a commission. This was one of the ways he supplemented his income. So what the dishonest but ingenuous employee does is cut the commission that the debtors owe to him. “How much do you owe my master?” The debtor answers, “One hundred measures of olive oil.” “Sit down and quickly write one for fifty,” says the manager (Luke 16:5-6). The dishonest employee was shrewd. In this way, when he was fired, he would have earned the friendship of the debtors who then might take him in and give him a job. When the rich man heard of this, he commended the dishonest manager for being prudent (Luke 16:8).
What did the dishonest employee do? He acted generously, giving his commission back to the debtors, but his generosity was motivated by his fear of doing hard labor or begging (Luke 16:3). Jesus points out that this is the way “the children of this world” act (Luke 16:7). Their generosity has ulterior motives based strictly on the values of this world. The “children of light,” however, keep their eyes on an eternal reward. They give generously because they know that what they have does not belong to them. It is “dishonest wealth” because these possessions actually belong to God. Therefore, the “children of light” know that they cannot “serve two masters” (Luke 16:13). The “children of light” handle material possessions with their sight set on an eternal reward, an eternal wealth. The “children of light” give of their possessions because they know that an everlasting reward awaits them.
God has given us wealth. For some this manifests itself in material possessions. Some have. Some do not. But to all God has given a spiritual richness. God has given us His love and the ability to know Him and live with Him now in this life and more fully in the next. This is no small gift. And all of God’s gifts, both material and spiritual, must be shared. “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones” (Luke 16:10) (6).
I remember visiting Russia about ten years after Communism fell. The churches were once again opened after more than seventy years of persecution. My guide took me into one of the more spectacularly beautiful cathedrals in Moscow. It was filled with people. I noticed an old grandmother teaching her six year old grandchild how to pray in front of an icon. My guide pulled me aside and said, “Do you see what is going on here? This is how Christianity survived decades of persecution in Russia. We have the grandmothers to thank for passing on the faith.” The old grandmother probably had nothing else to give her grandchild except this gift of faith, and this was her most valuable gift.
Being trustworthy in God’s mind is all a matter of generosity.