taken 9/2003 by sji

 

november 4, 2005

Lk 16:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property.
He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’ Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.”
What speaks to me in the reading is that the steward at first thought that all was lost he had made a grave error and was frightened that his place in life was ruined. Rather than despair and give up, he comes up with a plan to recover much of what was lost and keep the good will of those whom he offended. His master who is the parable role of God is pleased with the wisdom of what the steward has done. Because he was a worldly person he was able to come up with a practical solution to collecting debts that pleased all.