Gospel of Luke, chapter 16:8

The story is told about an angel who appeared at a faculty meeting and told the dean that he has 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, in jest, looked up and said, “I should have taken the money.” That’s how the people of this world would respond. The gospel tells a different story as we will see.

Today’s scripture, Luke 16:1-7 about the parable of the dishonest manager deals with worldly cleverness; the cleverness that is focused on self-interest; the cleverness that would take the money at the expense of ones spiritual and moral life. A person can be smart and use one’s smartness to do mean things. Many con artists and terrorists are smart people who use their smartness to create unhappiness in the world. Today’s parable challenges us to be clever in the pursuit of the kingdom of God just as godless people are clever in their pursuit of selfish goals. Jesus uses the example of a shrewd manager in his master’s business to teach us the need to be 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 relationships with 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 gift of faith; we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts; we have the support of one another; the Sacraments; the Scriptures, and the gifts of faith, hope and love.

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 helplessness and did something about it . We do not have to wait, like the dishonest manager, for a last minute display of shrewdness to fix our situation. 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