The parable of the crafty steward (HOMILY FOR THE 25TH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME YEAR C SEPT 2022

Homily for the 25th Sunday in the ordinary time year C

Amos 8:4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13

The Gospel of the 25th Sunday of the year speaks to us of the parable of the crafty steward. 

We are told: "There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property (Lk 16:1). 

From the outlook of things, this steward must have been an important person to be entrusted with the properties of the rich man. He must have been the manager of the rich man's property. He must have enjoyed so much trust from the master. He must have also been enjoying absolute freedom in the economic management of the rich man's property. But many atimes this kind of freedom of management breeds mismanagement and corruption when not well guided. This explained the reason why he was being accused of squandering the rich man's property with sustainable charges. When the rich man even summoned him and said to him "what is this I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your stewardship, because you cannot be my steward any longer" (LK 16:2). This steward could not make any attempt to even defend himself because the charges were sustainably true.

It was at this point the steward, knowing the consequences of his action began to have a rethink, saying to himslef: "What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? He remembered, he was not strong enough to dig (farming), and would not be able to beg as well" (LK 16:3). Obviously, he must have been a very lazy servant, not in the squandering of property but in the production of goods and services. 

However, in his smartness, he came up with a clever argument. he said, :"When I am dismissed as steward, people may receive me into their houses. Hence, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' He said, 'a hundred jugs of olive oil'. He said to him, 'take you bill, sit down and make it fifty" (Lk 16:4-6). Hundred jugs of oil roughly amounts to about one thousand gallons of oil. In other words, this was more of a gift to the debtor. The debtor must have been surprised at this sudden generosity of the manager. 

Then to another he asked, how much do you owe? The debtor answered, "a hundred containers of wheat', he said to him, 'take your bill and make it eighty" (LK 16:7). This will be roughly be equivalent to one thousand bushels of wheat. Thus, it is more of a gift to the debtor as well. 

There may have been many other debtors treated in like manner but these two were given as examples. Nevertheless, this strategy deviced by the manager showed his smart or crafty nature because hardly would those whom he had enriched via debt forgiveness refuse him at critical stage of life.

We are told that when the master heard of this attitude of the dishonest steward or manager, he commended him because he acted shrewdly (LK 16:8). He observed that the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light (Lk 16:8).

Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, the essence of Jesus narrating this parable is not to praise the manager for his crookedness or corruption but to designate the cleverness, smartness and shrewdness of the steward in securing his future. To demonstrate how clever the children of this world go about in the preservation of the earthly objectives than are the children of light in the preservation of heavenly objectives.

Take the spirit of unity, togetherness and fraternity for an example. While I was having my novitiate in Italy, in one of the classes, while the novice master was explaining the spirit of brotherhood and community life. He made a similar observation about the attitude of the MAFIA vis-a-vis the RELIGIOUS. He noted the unity and togetherness that exist among this corrupt group. Of how they would team up in support of a corrupt member of the group to wage aggression against a perceived enemy not caring who was right or wrong, be it the government or individual. They are ready to deploy all their resources unanimously to overcome the situation. They are even ready to go dirty and stake their lives for one another in so far as it is for the victory of their cult member. He spoke of how they remained generous to one another so much so that if one who is poor enters the group he is automatically cared for and help to become rich even if it has to be via a corrupt means. He spoke of their sense of loyalty and commitment to the group. The novice master said all these not to praise them for their corrupt-evil attitude but to demonstrate that many atimes it is not the case with even the religious who live community life. He spoke of how disunited and divided the confreres are in the face of trouble and crisis. How they lack they sprit of fraternity and cooperation when they are face with challenges. How they plot the downfall of one another in respective communities and gossip one another in other to destroy the reputation of a fellow confreres. 

Beloved in Christ, that the children of this world are smarter and more clever in maintaining the values and objectives of this world than the children of light in maintaining the values and objectives of heaven is obviously true. 

Even among the people of God, among parishioners and small Christian communities it is true. The values and objectives of fraternity, support, love, togetherness, unity, care, generosity etc seem to be lacking so much so that we have so many disjointed societies and organisations, the cooperation is lacking, gossip and backbiting evereherwe, the team-work is being questioned, collective obedience to the directives of the church authorities is questioned as well. We have the poor among us despite that some are rich. St. Vincent the Paul seems to be neglected, People still scamper for job employments even when some can be of help to them. Yet we glory ourselves as children of light without commitment to heavenly objectives.

It was in this light that the prophet Amos chastised the people of God, the children of light in the first reading, for their atrocious deeds. He said, : " you who trample on the needy and try to suppress the poor people of the country. You say when will the New moon be over so that we can sell our corn, and Sabbath so that we can market our wheat. By lowering the bushel, raising the shekel, swindling and tampering with the scales. We can buy up the poor for money and needy for pair of sandals... The Lord says this, 'Never will I forget your deeds" (Amos 8:4-6)

Friends in Christ, the children of light should be clever and skillfull in doing good and attaining heavenly objectives as the children of this world are clever and skillfull in doing evil.

Jesus continued, "make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into their eternal homes" (Lk 16:9). Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, money in itself is not evilbut can be used for evil purposes and that makes it unrighteous. But it can as well be deployed for just purposes: for the relief of the poor and the needy, for the edification and growth of the church etc. Hence, with money we can gain friends who will welcome us into the everlasting dwelling place of God. Friends in Christ, the question remains: Na who you help? Who can you verily say that you have relived and transformed his life via charitable use of money in your possession.

Jesus admonishes us: "If you are not faithful with dishonest wealth, who will entrust you with true riches? (Lk 16:11). It is until we can demonstrate that we are faithful administrators of the money, property, riches, wealth etc then shall God entrust us with parmanent riches of inner peace, interior joy, hope of eternal life. 

Finally, Jesus instructs us: "No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth" (Lk 16:13). During the time of Jesus, a slave was merely perceived as a thing, a property or tool of the master. The master has absolute authority over the slave because he bought the slave to himself alone. He can sell the slave or throw him out or even kill him. Hence, in this kind of situation we can see that the slave cannot belong to two masters. 

Beloved in Christ, the truth also is that we cannot serve both God and money. We cannot be servants of God and at the same time slaves to money. Jesus had purchased us for God with his own precious blood on the cross of Calvary. Through the sacrament of baptism we now participate in the divine life.  Hence, to God and God alone do we belong. 

Children of God, let us be servants of God, let us be fully devoted to God in all we do. Let us serve him in the objectives and values of the kingdom of God. May God bless his words in our heart both now and forevermore. Amen

Happy Sunday to you all!

Fr Remi Osj