Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
What is the difference between Christians and non-Christians? It is not that Christians are any less sinful, any less capable of committing crimes, any more likely to get to heaven. Today’s scriptures make that quite clear.
The gospel (Luke 16:1-8) features Jesus’ parable of the dishonest steward (familiar because we last heard it at Sunday Mass in September). This parable has often perplexed me, because I find myself wondering why the master commends the steward for reducing his (the master’s) tenants’ debts. After all, it is the master’s money and now the master will get less in repayment while the steward has protected himself. The steward’s hope is that the people whose debts he’s forgiven will likewise find themselves generous when the steward no longer has a job.
But Jesus’ point in telling this parable is less to affirm or condemn the actions of either the master or the steward, but more to make a point to his disciples: even those who are dishonest like the steward are capable of acting wisely and prudently in this age. The steward, in his own dishonest way, has acted prudently and he earns a commendation from Jesus. Indeed, this man who is NOT a child of the light is meant to be an example and witness to those who are children of the light. Jesus is worried his own “children of the light” are not able to be prudent.
Catholic teaching says that people who are not Christian have truthful, helpful things to say to those of us Christians who are not acting well. “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these [non-Christian] religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all.” (Nostra Aetate) Even more, the church suggests the possibility of non-Christians being saved: “Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.” (Lumen Gentium)
Christians are called to witness something greater, though, because we do know Jesus. Paul reminds us of this (Philippians 3:17-4:1). “Be imitators of me,” says Paul. The prudent thing for the Christian is to learn selectively from the steward: be prudent, but prudent in a way that makes us imitators of Jesus Christ.
What is the difference between Christians and non-Christians? We, despite the fact that we are sinful too, have knowledge of Jesus Christ and so should always strive toward the One who loves us and shows us grace. We should not be concerned with doing things the way the world does, even when that puts us at odds or makes us appear strange. I am thinking here particularly of the example of a former student of mine who went to work for a business corporation and discovered that “everyone” padded their expenses and that everyone “lied a little bit” to get ahead. He followed course, though Christ was calling him to demonstrate some different way, and eventually that cost him his job, when an ethics review board did an audit.
Today, let us reflect on the good things we learn from those who are not Christians, and seek to put those things to use in the service of Christ.
- Jana M. Bennett