The Gospel Reading of Friday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time (Luke 16:1-8) is known as the parable of the shrewd steward because it is about how cleverly a steward responded to his master’s call of confrontation of his mismanagement of his property. It is also known as the parable of the unjust steward, as it is a story about a steward who squandered his master’s property.
As the master became aware of his steward’s mishandling of his property, he confronted the steward, saying,” What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward” (Luke 16:2). To this, the steward shrewdly responded and worked with his masters’ clients, who were indebted to the master. What the steward did with the masters’ clients was to reduce their debts while he could still exercise his authority as his master’s steward. His motive to do this was selfish, as it was to curry favor from the master’s clients as reducing their debts sure appeared to be great kindness to them. In doing so, the steward was hoping that at least one of them would give him a job after termination of his employment for the master.
In this parable, Jesus said that the master commended his dishonest steward for acting prudently.
So why did Jesus give such a parable, saying that the master complimented his unjust steward? What is so prudent about the steward’s witty act for himself?
To understand this, it is likely that the steward overcharged his master’s clients, inflating the amounts of their debts to the master so that he could pocket the difference between what he charged them and what they actually owed the master. Besides squandering the master’s property, the steward overcharged the master’s clients to make unjust gain for himself. And this indicates the greed of the steward. However, knowing that his misbehaviors costed his employment, the steward adjusted the debts of the master’s clients, forfeiting unjust gain for himself from the clients. This is the price he paid for a better chance to find a new employment from a happy client of his master, as they would think that the steward and his master were so generous to significantly reduce their debts. What was unbeknownst to them was that the steward overcharged them for his personal gain.
If the master is a metaphor for God, then, it makes sense that the steward’s acts to the master’s clients were commended, as it can be considered as correcting his unjust acts. Basically, what the steward did at the end was to clean the mess he made so that he would not be so miserable even his employment for the master is terminated.
Given that we read this parable at this time of a liturgical year, coming closer to its end, it makes sense to interpret that the master found his actions to his clients rather prudent than shrewd for correcting his unethical and selfish acts. So we learn a lesson that we shall correct our past mistakes and misbehaviors before the judgement day at the end of time, so that we may be saved.
Of course, this parable is not about commending his selfish greedy behaviors. What is considered to be worthy of compliment is his clever prudence to give up unjust gain and correct his misbehavior to save himself from misery of hard labor or unemployment.
As a liturgical year concludes with the week of the 34th Sunday, which is also known as “Christ the King Sunday”, we are coming closer to this liturgical year’s end, as we are about to end the 31st week in Ordinary Time. To prepare ourselves for the return of Christ as the King of all kings, who is coming to judge us, we must work hard in making mends to all our misbehaviors in the past. And Jesus wants us to be as prudent as the steward was in doing so.
To signal our need to prepare ourselves for the end of time, the First Reading (Philippians 3:17-4:1)(Yeare II) reminds us of our true citizenship, which is in Christ’s heavenly Kingdom. But for us to enter in heaven, we must pass the judgement. That is why it is so important for us to correct our past mistakes so that we reduce our debts to our Master, God, by the time of our judgement. The way the steward in the Gospel Reading (Luke 16:1-8) corrected himself gives a unique example for this. And Jesus wants us to apply wit for our prudent self-corrections before the judgement.
Following the parable (Luke 16:1-8), Jesus explained some applications of the parable’s lesson (Luke 16:9-13). In his, he rebukes dishonesty, which the steward committed, and greed, which prompted him to waste his master’s property and to try to collect more than the actual debts of the master’s debtors.
According to Jesus, a point of the parable is:
No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13).
Those who choose to serve mammon can be considered as “enemies of the Cross”(Philippians 3:18), according to Paul, who wrote:
Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their “shame.” Their minds are occupied with earthly things (Philippians 3:19).
If we truly consider our Master is God but we have sinned and therefore indebted to Him, waste no time in acting with prudent wit to correct ourselves, letting go of our attachment to whatever keep us from God, whether it is mammon or anything else, resolving our attachment to such things. And we can take a lesson from the way the unjust steward corrected his misconducts with his master’s debtors.
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