Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
Today's reading from the Gospel of St. Luke has long given readers difficulty in interpretation. Jesus seems to be telling His audience that they should imitate the dishonest steward. Indeed, the dishonest steward seems to receive much praise from Jesus in this parable. How can that be? Why would Jesus say anything at all positive about a dishonest steward? Both the readings today create a contrast between those who are worth imitating and those we must not. For example, in the first reading Paul asks Chrsitians to imitate him (Phil 3:17) and reject the philosophy of those who "conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ" (Phil 3:18). In the gospel reading there is a contrast between the children of the world and the children of the light. But the contrast is a little more complex. We are asked to imitate the children of the world. Why and How Should We Imitate the Dishonest Steward?
When reading today's passage, we have to be very careful to read precisely what Jesus praises about the dishonest steward as a child of the world. Jesus praises the dishonest steward's prudence. Jesus nowhere praises the steward's dishonesty. Notice that Jesus does not, for example, complain that "the children of light" are too honest, or not sufficiently dishonest. Rather, Jesus praises the unholy "children of this world" for their prudence, like that of the dishonest steward, and He chastises the holy "children of light" for their lack of prudence. Elsewhere Jesus encourages His followers to be as shrewd as serpents, but maintains they must remain as innocent as doves.
Most of us could probably use some lessons in being shrewd and prudent in the senses in which Jesus uses the terms. This is probably more so the case for those who are holier among us, and especially those who are younger and more innocent.
One of the best ways to learn such shrewdness and prudence is from those who have more experience in life than we do. For example, how can we can imitate St. Paul? What can we learn from the early martyrs of the Church or from modern saints like Mother Teresa? What are ways we can learn from the dishonest, without becoming dishonest like them? This is one of the things today's reading leaves us with.
Jeff Morrow