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God lesson from a bad manager
Today's Gospel sounds puzzling to contemporary readers, but it can be made less so by considering the economic system which stands behind the parable. The manager of the property said to himself, “Now that my master is taking the stewardship from me, what am I to do? Dig? I am not strong enough. Go begging? I would be too ashamed. Ah, I know what I will do to make sure that when I am dismissed from office there will be some to welcome me into their homes” (Lk 16: 3-4). Here then is the crux of the story of today: the manager could have very well asked the debtors to give him part of the debt. After all, the master seems to have no idea of the amount owed to him by his debtors. The manager could have made some good money out of it. But he plans to do something more lasting: to use the wealth to build something more lasting – friendships. This is the beauty of his realization. He uses the present wealth to invest future relationships. A tragedy with a happy ending, it seems! That is the paradox with the wealth of this world! Jesus therefore takes the parable to a future that is beyond this world. He concludes, “And so I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings” (Lk 16:9).
The passage concludes with three morals for the listeners. The first exhorts the listener to be prudent about the use of wealth. Like the steward in the parable, those who would follow Jesus must put transitory affairs in the proper perspective. Christians should handle the affairs of temporal life with an eye toward eternal life.
The second concerns trustworthiness. Those who can be trusted in small things can also be trusted in great things. If Christians handle money and other passing things responsibly, then they can also be trusted with the affairs of the Kingdom of God. Finally, Jesus tells his listeners that no one can serve two masters simultaneously. God must be put ahead of every other material concern one has in this life.
In 2010, the wealthiest people in the United States launched a campaign to encourage the wealthy of the world to make a commitment to give most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. The project was called, “The Giving Pledge”. One of those who committed to this pledge was an Indian-born entrepreneur, who now lives in the US: Manoj Bhargava. In his pledge, he states, “Service to others seems the only intelligent choice for the use of wealth. The other choices, especially personal consumption, seem either useless or harmful.” This statement captures quite well the theme of this Sunday: Service to others seems the only intelligent choice for the use of wealth.
Most of the wealthy corporations give away part of their profit as a policy to practice Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We might shy away from embracing the lesson of this parable as we might consider ourselves not wealthy nor a part of a corporation. The lesson of the parable is laser focused on CSR as meaning Conscious Soul Responsibility. Factoring ‘Eternity’ into our daily living makes us wise persons who are not easily swayed by the temptations of instant gratification. Our power to choose, connected to the vision of eternal values, brings with it the wholeness of life that the Lord is inviting us to experience here and now.
Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O.