The story is told about an angel who appeared at a faculty meeting and told the dean that he had come to reward him for his years of devoted service. The dean was asked to choose one of three blessings: infinite wealth, infinite fame, or infinite wisdom. Without hesitation, the dean asked for infinite wisdom. “You got it!” said the angel, and left.

All heads turned toward the dean. Finally one of his colleagues whispered, “Say something.” The dean looked up and said, “I should have taken the money.”

That’s how the shrewd people of this world see it. The gospel, however, tells a different story.

The parable of the unjust manager in Luke 16:1-7 illustrates how much cleverer the people “of this world” are when dealing with their own kind than the “children of the light.” Jesus does not condone the behavior of the unjust manager for defrauding his boss and gaining the support of his workers, after he was caught, by forgiving their debts. The Lord merely challenges us to be as clever in the pursuit of the kingdom of God as godless people are in the pursuit of selfish goals. In this parable, He uses the example of a shrewd manager in his master’s business to teach us the need to be just as shrewd in the Lord’s service.

We are challenged to imitate the manager’s shrewdness, not his dishonesty. The master “commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly” (Luke 16:8), not because he was dishonest.

All of us need to be shrewd managers of our own affairs, our environment, and our relationship with God and one another. Yes, we are all called to do just that. God has entrusted the whole of His creation into our hands as His managers. Likewise, Jesus entrusts the kingdom of God – the kingdom of love, justice and peace – into our hands as his managers. World peace and harmony, and the renewal of all things in Christ, are the business of us all collectively and individually. Our business as followers of Christ is to help bring about the kingdom of God starting with ourselves first.

We have been given the necessary resources to do this. We have been equipped with the gifts of faith, hope and love. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. We have the Sacraments, and the Scriptures, and the support of one another.

Events in our world and in our country right now show that we live in difficult times, like the manager in today’s parable. The manager faced the truth of his situation, which he brought upon himself by greed, and acted shrewdly to get out of it.

For the children of the light, the time to be shrewd is now. We need to invest our spiritual resources wisely to gain the only thing that matters: the kingdom of God.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy