The Scripture readings we hear at mass and the liturgy we celebrate are meant to go beyond what we do in our Eucharistic celebration. The message of the readings and the meaning we take away from the Eucharist should influence our lives, they should influence how we live out our faith day-in and day-out. Yet, even when this is our intent, it may be difficult for us to be clear as to what we are to take with us from mass, especially as we hear a message in today's readings that we might struggle to understand and wonder what meaning it has for us in our daily lives of faith.
Today, the prophet Amos boldly decries the rich who crush and exploit the poor, yet, these rich individuals still claim to follow the values of the faith, even if these values are no supported by their actions. Then, Jesus tells us the parable of the dishonest steward who uses his shrewdness to plan for the future after being dismissed from his job. When you think about it, money, wealth, and what we do with our treasures are at the center of a lot of Jesus' teachings. When we look at our modern world today, we see many who struggle with money issues, from a lack of money for daily survival, to how we spend our money, save for the future, and how we share our treasures with others. How we spend our riches and resources is intimately connected to our faith and our values, which is why we struggle with this issue so much and why Sacred Scripture devotes so much time to this issue.
Jesus praises the dishonest steward in today's parable, but it's not entirely clear why he is praised. It seems to me that Jesus is praising the steward for his shrewdness, not for his dishonesty. We don't know why the steward is dismissed from his job, but once he knows he's going to have to fend for himself, he realistically looks at his situation, evaluates his options, and shrewdly plans for his future. The steward reduces the amount the debtors owe his master on their promissory notes: he could be reducing it by the amount of interest they owe, just allowing them to pay back the principal, or he could be removing the amount of his commission from the loans so that they might in turn help him out after he leaves his job.
So, why would Jesus tell his disciples this parable? I don't think he's telling us to be dishonest or for us to cheat others in order to fend for ourselves, but, perhaps he's telling us to use greater wisdom and shrewdness in the way we interact with the world, in the way we use our earthly riches. I think of how each summer, ,many of our parish youth use some of their summer break to reach out to those in need. For the last couple of summers, we have had an experience at St Jude for our youth called Homework, where we reach out to the youth in our own community.
This outreach is in agreement with how Pope Francis asks us to evangelize those around us with our words and our actions – to use our talents, personalities, enthusiasm, faith and love of God to reach out to touch the lives of others, especially those in need.
The prophet Amos was representative of the prophets of Ancient Israel – they preached that we are to reach out to the poor rather than to oppress them and exploit them. We are called to live out this message in their lives as modern-day Catholics. May our words and our actions be blessed by the Lord as we continue on our journey of faith.
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