28th Sunday Year C 2019

28th. Sunday, Year (C)

(2 Kings 5:14-17; 2^nd. Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Gospel reading gives us important guidance concerning our spiritual life.   All true disciples of Jesus want to become fervent ones who sincerely love the Lord, and who, indeed, might become worthy of an intimate, personal, relationship with Him; and recently, in our Sunday Gospel readings, we have heard advice from Jesus on how we can achieve that desire.  Just last week we were told by the Lord that we must not look for quick, earthly, rewards since here on earth we are servants whose job it is to work for the Lord, not to look for personal comforts and satisfactions; earlier, we were encouraged to treasure our faith and to have confidence in its power to raise us up with Christ; and yet earlier we might still remember being told to persevere in knocking, seeking, and asking.

Today, we have another piece of essential advice for our spiritual growth … and by that, I mean our growth as children of God before our Father in heaven, not before human beings, whomsoever they may be, here on earth.

As Jesus continued His journey to Jerusalem He travelled through Samaria and Galilee.  As He was entering a certain village ten lepers met Him; they stood at a distance from Him and raised their voices saying, “Jesus, Master!  Have pity on us!”

When He saw them Jesus said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that, as they were on their way to the priests, they were cleansed.   One of them -- when he saw that he was healed – returned, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell down at the feet of Jesus giving Him thanks. He was a Samaritan.  So, Jesus said:

Ten were cleansed were they not? Where are the other nine?  Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?

Try to imagine that instant when those erstwhile lepers first realized, almost incredulously, what had happened to them!!  That horrible, flesh-devouring, corrupting, process, that cursed plague which had shut them off from all familiar contact with family, loved ones, friends, indeed, from all healthy human society, THAT … IT … was obliterated; it had simply disappeared and they found themselves well again, no longer ugly and repulsive; now they were normal like everyone else, and they would soon be able to meet with others in homely and familiar surroundings, doing ordinary, every-day, things, so lovingly remembered and so deeply missed!

It is hard, indeed, perhaps impossible, to imagine that moment of utter and stupendous joy and relief …. But, what else, do you think they might well have felt?  Surely, at the centre of that volcanic upsurge of joy and relief, they would have felt burning gratitude too?  We know for a fact that at least one of them did: for he had to return to Jesus without any delay to thank Him.  The others were, perhaps, so excited at their recovery of health that they simply forgot all else; or else it might be that some were so desirous of getting the priests to witness their new-found cleanliness -- which was necessary before they could officially be allowed to join ordinary people once again -- that they did not feel that gratitude until after they had been certified clean by the priests; yet others may have felt they had first of all to visit family and begin picking up the threads of their previous lives once again.   Nevertheless, in all those ‘other’ cases, not responding immediately to whatever grace of God did move them cost them the opportunity to express their gratitude to Jesus, for He had gone on, dismayed somewhat by their failure to return to Him.

Now, that is something of the utmost importance in the spiritual life, People of God.  We are blessed if we feel in our heart gratitude to God for whatever it may be: experiencing moments of clear awareness of the beauty of God’s creation, being awe-struck at manifestations of His power, suddenly appreciating His goodness to us personally, being astounded at His wisdom in the Scriptures and at His supreme goodness and love in the gift of His beloved, only-begotten, Son for our salvation ….. there are countless ways in which God and His grace can touch our heart at any given time, and every one of them is a priceless blessing if indeed we respond immediately, if that touch actually moves our heart, and leads us to give thanks to God, admiring Him as we are moved.

One of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell the feet of Jesus and thanked Him.   He was a Samaritan.

You notice that only one, a Samaritan, responded immediately and came back gratefully to thank Jesus, and he was not considered to be a religious man as were the other nine Israelites, according to Jewish appreciation of those times.  But of course, for some people, religion was then -- as it still is today for very many -- all about performing duties and obligations in order to save themselves, rather than being the most sublime expression of their mind’s communion with, and fulfilment of their heart’s longing for, the God Who loves them and is calling them.

It is a noble ambition, an admirable desire, to be a true Christian.  It is, indeed the calling of all Christians and one which has touched the heart of many disciples of Jesus at some time or other; but sadly, those who respond whole-heartedly to such a calling and perseveringly seek to fulfil its demands are no more numerous than the one out of ten cleansed lepers:

Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed were they not? Where are the other nine?  Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

One of the great causes of would-be-disciples thus losing their way is pointed out to us by the Lord today: count it a blessing to experience the mysterious working of the Spirit of God in your heart, but you must try to respond immediately, for that is a supremely  important step on the way to intimacy with the Lord.

There is further instruction for us on this matter in our first reading today where, as you will recall, Naaman, the Syrian army commander, having bathed in the Jordan at Elisha’s command found himself miraculously cured of his disease. His heart was not just touched by the grace of God, it was truly moved, and being humbled with consuming gratitude, he forgot all about his own dignity as a royal representative with imperious royal duties and immediately:

Returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.

On his arrival Naaman stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.  Please accept a gift from your servant.”  “As the LORD lives Whom I serve I will not take it” Elisha replied; and despite Naaman’s urging, he still refused.

Why did Elisha so bluntly, even so vehemently, refuse Naaman’s grateful gift?    Let us turn back the pages of our Bible and read Genesis 14:23:

Abram replied to the King of Sodom, “I have sworn to the LORD, God most High, the Creator of heaven and earth,  that I would not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap from anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 

Elisha, under God’s guidance and in imitation of Abraham, refused to accept Naaman’s gift – a gift offered in sincerity of heart – lest Naaman should then have thought that he had settled his debt with Elisha’s God, indeed, settled it with generosity.  God was choosing Naaman for purposes unknown to him, with the result that being unable to pay his debt to the man of God as he would have liked, Naaman’s sense of honour would not allow him to forget what had been done for him in the land of Israel by a prophet of Israel’s God. Therefore, he requested of Elisha earth from Israel in order to pray acceptably, as he thought, to the God Who had restored his flesh through the prophet’s intercession and by his own washing in the Jordan.  

Personal prayer of worship and thanksgiving to the God of Israel Who, through His prophet, had cleansed him ...where would that lead Naaman?  What were God’s plans for him??

            Go in peace – Elisha said – ‘such faith will save you’, we might well add!

Once more we are being taught about gratitude before God; and the example of Naaman is of the deepest significance, for Naaman did not only say ‘Thank you’ to Elisha immediately, he also took serious measures to make sure that he would henceforth remember and be able to offer acceptable signs of gratitude to the God of Elisha, the God of Israel, even when he had returned to pagan Syria to continue his work in the service of Syria’s ruler. 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, God is divine and so good that He wills to share His divine blessedness with us; we, however, are human and indeed sinful, and consequently must open up to Him something of the very best our human capacities for our renewal and refashioning in Jesus by the Spirit: and that must, most surely, include an attentive and humble mind able to recognize one’s needs before God, and a heart and will committed to gratefully cherishing the remembrance of God’s resultant great goodness to us personally and to all of good will.

                                

27th Sunday Year C 2019

 27th. Sunday Year (C)

(Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4.  2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14.  Luke 17:5-10)

Why did the Apostles say to Jesus: Increase our faith?  Were they imagining some lack of, insufficient ‘quantity’ of, faith given them, for some difficulty or failure on their part?

Luke does not give us any information about what had occasioned this request by the apostles, but, whatever the reason, their request highlighted their ignorance of the true nature of the gift of faith; and Jesus' answer seems intended to nip-in-the-bud any possibility of their doubting God’s providence as His disciples and ministers of the Gospel, by helping them  better appreciate the wondrous power of authentic faith:

If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

Notice that Jesus did not call their faith into question; He didn’t say, ‘If you had faith’, but, ‘If you have faith as a mustard seed’.  In the Christian life it is not that God’s gifts are insufficient for our real needs, but rather that we, so very, very often, fail to appreciate the wonder of what has already been given us, as St. Paul himself said in the second reading:

            Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you.

Let me now give you a short description of the mulberry tree (Barnes' notes) and you will have a clearer idea of the significance of Jesus' parable.

Look, now, at this tree: its ample girth, its wide-spread arms branching off from the parent trunk only a few feet from the ground.  Next, examine its enormous roots: as thick, as numerous, and as wide-spread into the deep soil below as the branches extend into the air above.  What power on earth can pluck up such a tree? Heaven's thunderbolt may strike it down, the wild tornado may tear it to fragments, but, surely, nothing short of miraculous power could pluck it up by the roots."

At that time the apostles still had Jesus with them as the centre of their minds' attention, their hearts’ affections and expectations, and perhaps for that reason they were not, as yet, able to appreciate the power of that supernatural gift of grace which had made them  into disciples and, most especially, Apostles of His.  And so, Jesus now goes on to hint that at a time close to hand He will no longer be with them at their side.  He pictures a time when He Himself will be "resting", and they will be expected to continue working, apparently alone, but, in reality, working on His behalf under the guidance and in the power of, His most Holy Spirit:

Which of you, having a servant ploughing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'?  But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'?

Speaking in this way Jesus opens up a further aspect of the apostles' incomprehension:  God does not bestow His spiritual gifts on his servants for them to possess as do children who cling to, and at times boast of, presents they have received.  God gives us, and most especially His Apostles, His chosen blessings in order that thereby they might live in ever closer communion with Himself, empowered to co-operate in the spread, and promote the understanding, of the  Gospel Good News among all peoples and throughout all times.  Jesus, in short, wanted to counter any possessiveness on the part of the apostles, to protect them from that innate tendency to selfishness and pride that would shortly incite them to argue amongst themselves about which of them was the greatest.   He needed to ward off the perennial threat to all those who are specially gifted, by warning His apostles and their successors, against the pride and arrogance so commonly seen in the  widespread, then and now, abuse of worldly and even spiritual power.

He spoke only a few words because the apostles were not yet ready for more, but the words He chose covered all that needed to be said; and, being simply expressed, certain aspects could be readily understood by the apostles, while the more hidden depths would subsequently be revealed by the Spirit to Mother Church -- who treasures all such words of Jesus in her heart – through all the ages of her mission here on earth:

So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'

Which, relating to the request they had made so shortly before, meant: ‘bearing in mind that what has been given you, the endowment already bestowed on you by God, is immeasurably superior to whatever may be asked of you as Apostles, you should be saying with heart-felt gratitude and sorrow: We are unprofitable servants; we have only done our duty, we have only done what was well within our power to do.

Jesus was preparing His Apostles for the time when they would soon be without His comforting presence, alone, yet commissioned to proclaim the Good News of their Lord and Saviour to a largely alien world where they must never dream of calling God into question, where they must never ever, allow themselves to indulge in such self-pity.

The prophet Habakkuk had also spoken, as did Jesus, about the time for labour in this world, when rest is longed for but -- though its promise be sure -- its fulfilment is, and has to be, delayed:

Write the vision and make it plain on tablets; (it) is yet for an appointed time, at the end it will speak and will not lie.  Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Lovers of this world, the proud, the sinful, cannot abide such delay, for, as you heard, “the rash one has no integrity”,  his soul is not upright in him; he cannot reconcile himself to waiting in trust, neither can he humble himself in the service of a cause where success is not in some way readily apparent or tangible.  Such selfless devotion is only for those whom God has specially blessed, as the prophet's words make abundantly clear:

The just shall live by his faith.

St. Paul told us how God the Father has blessed all who are in Christ Jesus:

Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.  

We have been given two gifts in Jesus St. Paul tells us there: the gift of faith to hold fast to ‘the pattern of sound words’ contained in his teaching and that of Mother Church, and the gift of love to seek and serve Jesus P/personally in our daily living of that teaching.  Now, with two such gifts, our call to selflessness does not mean a life of sheer endurance as we journey through a desert of aridity in the face of storms constantly exposing our weakness and anxiety; rather is it a life which, being gradually emptied of self-love, is thereby made ever more capable of receiving the gifts of the Spirit, of being filled to overflowing with the peace, joy, and love which are to be found in Christ Jesus alone.

As Jesus told His disciples, the gifts already given us are sufficient for all our needs:

If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

And not only are God's gifts sufficient for all our needs, they are more than enough for all our desires!  For faith is a treasure, and love of Jesus is not only the fruit, beauty, and glory of that treasure, but also the tool whereby we can come to appreciate what He has given us ever more and more:

Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.  That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us.

The Apostles had to learn, as we too must learn, that a disciple of Jesus has to work not only outside, in the mission-field of daily life and witness in the world, but also on the inside, in the secret depths of his own being.  The one, true, Faith is not merely a public form of words and practices to be believed and fulfilled, it is also a personal treasure to be quarried and appreciated ever more deeply in one’s mind and heart.  When worked on in that way the treasure which is our Faith yields up great beauty for our inspiration whilst it bestows a godly power, immeasurable indeed, but not one for boasting and self-aggrandisement as the early apostles were tempted to imagine, but one, on the contrary, that empowers us to respond with humble, quiet and consoling, sympathy and ‘adequacy’ to what is now almost ‘within our reach’, as we stretch out with holy obedience for correspondence to the beauty of God's truth, and  with faith-enflamed delight to share more and more in the wonder of His love, thereby inspiring us to become ever more selfless and wholly other, to the extent that, as St. Paul puts it:

It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. (Galatians 2:20)

Christ, by the power of His Spirit in us, leads, guides, encourages and empowers us to work ever more at and with our treasure trove of our Catholic and Christian Faith:

Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the      laying on of my hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.

We are not to repeat the failure of those in the time of the prophet Habakkuk who, echoing the horrors of abidingly-sinful humanity, cried out:

Why do You make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; strife exists and contention arises, yet You do not save.

The time of rest, the time for rejoicing over the ultimate conquest of evil is not yet.  Jesus Himself is in heavenly glory, but we, His disciples, have work still to do for Him on earth:

Prepare something for My supper, and gird yourself and serve Me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink.

For that purpose, we have been gifted with "the faith and love that is in Christ Jesus"; let us then aspire, with sure confidence and firm hope, to the fulfilment of His promise:

Blessed are those servants whom the Master, when He comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that He will gird Himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.  (Luke 12:37-38)        

26th Sunday Year C 2019

 26^th.Sunday (Year C)

(Amos 6: 1, 4-7; 1 Timothy 6: 11-16; Luke 16: 19-31)

The rich man – let us give him the traditional name Dives which is simply Latin for ‘rich’ – was a family man who, at the last instance, cared about his brothers; nevertheless, he was in hell because during his lifetime he had cared  about no one else.  He could have helped Lazarus in his most dire need, but did not do so; perhaps he ignored Lazarus because he was unaware of him, being totally wrapped up in himself and his present enjoyment of pleasure and plenty, and perhaps with an extra comforting anticipation of more of the same to come in the future; if so, that would have greatly increased his guilt.

However, Dives’ lack of fraternal charity is not the point I wish to dwell on today, for I think the answer Abraham gave to Dives’ concern for his brothers in Jesus’ parable has much that can be of profit to us who are seeking to become better disciples of Jesus.

If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.

We should recognize that Jesus is speaking though Abraham’s name is used in the parable; and so, the ‘someone rising from the dead’ refers ultimately to Jesus Himself; and thus, the parable gives us a remarkable instance of the continuity between the old and the new in God’s dealings with His chosen people.

Moses and the Prophets were sent to the Chosen People of Israel to help them recognize their sinfulness by the offer of worldly salvation from slavery in Egypt, and then, through subsequent ages, from the belligerent opposition and persecutions of surrounding nations and ‘world’ powers – an offer subject only to their faithful response to the formative justice of God’s Law in their personal behaviour and the structuring of their society. 

However, their ever-recurring reluctance, and at times blatant refusal, to acknowledge and amend their own sinful ways despite the Lord’s mighty saving-deeds and paternal awareness expressed in the words of His chosen prophets, could only lead ultimately to their conviction by God,  as was indeed foreshadowed by the frustration shown by  some of those prophets beginning as early as Moses himself.

Jesus, however, came – was sent by His Father, Israel’s God -- not to convict but to save; and, as Man and Messiah, He chose Twelve Apostles, inspiring and empowering them by the holiness of His Own Person and the beauty, Wisdom, and Truth, of His Good News, and endowing them with the power of His most Holy Spirit, to help Him convert His People to appreciate, love, and embrace repentance for their sins, as did Peter himself, chief of those Apostles when, on making a remarkable catch of fish in obedience to Jesus’ word (Luke 5:8):

            Fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.’

Thus, humbled and repentant, the Chosen People were to find, in their heavenly Father’s home, an eternal salvation won for them by the power of Jesus’ self-sacrificing love embracing His Father, His Chosen People, and all men of good will.

‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets’ ... that is, in so far as they were not willing to accept the fact of their own sinfulness as witnessed by and testified to by their own ‘pride and joy’ Moses and the Prophets:

neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.

Notice that word, SOMEONE, dear People of God, because that is what the one ‘sent by God’ -- Jesus’ most frequently used self-appelation -- would be known generally: someone, personally unknown and unacknowledged, someone, unappreciated by, and ultimately unacceptable to, the majority of those He had come, He had been sent, to call to salvation by words such as:

            Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand,

as proclaimed by John the Baptist, and:

The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the Gospel,

as proclaimed by Jesus Himself.

How could they therefore -- as a wilfully sinful people despite all the words that Moses and the Prophets had spoken to them from God --  possibly accept even the most loving invitation and call of Jesus, a self-sacrificingly obedient Son of God made Man; One willingly accepting to die, for their sins, on their behalf, before taking up His life again in accordance with His Father’s command?

Neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.

However, Paul of Tarsus, was one Israelite who most certainly regarded Jesus as much more than a mere ‘someone’!  As a most ardent and learned Pharisee he had originally actively hated Jesus and persecuted His followers, until a heavenly visitation and subsequent Christian instruction, followed by years of loving contemplation of that holy teaching, changed him into the Apostle of the Gentiles who only once in our records of him totally let down his guard and spoke of himself and Jesus with total and self-less candour (Galatians 2:20):

         

I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God Who has loved Me and given Himself up for Me.

The history of Mother Church is replete with many who have sought easy ways to develop a special relationship with Jesus, many trying to latch onto extraordinary ‘spiritual’ happenings: something out of the ordinary, something they could talk about and perhaps lead or induce others to seek to experience also.  That is how so many of the religious sects which abound in the world today first began.  Finding the traditional Church too boring, having too little emotion and too much formality, being too institutionalised, or whatever the fault or the criticism might have been, they sought new and ‘spiritual’ experiences outside the Church.  And then that sect, in its turn, became, inevitably, more of an institution, with greater organization and less spontaneity in the eyes of critics, who were dissatisfied thereat and once more went off, on their own, in search of, or following after, more exciting and engaging personal experiences; and soon, another sect, an offshoot this time from a previous sect, was born.  There are literally hundreds and possibly thousands of such Christian sects (and no doubt Muslim, Hindu etc. sects) in the world today. 

Therefore, one might say, perhaps, that the indifference of the many who refused, or merely failed, to listen to Moses and the Prophets in old Israel, and of the many ‘nominal only’ Catholics and Christians in the world today, is really the manifestation of perennial and pervading dissatisfaction: not simply with religion, but also with whatever can be considered as institutionalised; indeed, as dissatisfaction with life itself, as witnessed by the increasingly frequent suicides of rich as well as poor, couples as well as individuals.

Dissatisfaction, however, can be found a great blessing rather than a great temptation or subtle sickness; but, if it is to turn out as God’s work, the true nature of such dissatisfaction must be closely observed and humbly recognized.  Dissatisfaction with oneself can be the source of untold blessings from God , whereas dissatisfaction directed against the Church and ones’ brothers and sisters in the Faith is the devil’s work; dissatisfaction with ‘institutions’ benotes anarchists and ‘wild-ones’, dissatisfaction with life itself can denote incipient or rampant sickness, unless it is the result of sufferings endured but not  humbly accepted or positively embraced.

God-given dissatisfaction with one’s own self in the Church, whilst recognizing that the Church herself is God’s gift, guided and protected by His Spirit, can force us to seek to delve deeper into that Spirit-guided teaching which the Church proclaims, it can constrain us to approach more seriously and sincerely the Sacraments whereby the Spirit flows into our lives, and in so doing it can lead us to change our own attitudes, overcome our own lassitude and half-heartedness, and gradually enable us to see more and more of the true beauty and glory of God’s wisdom in the world He created and in Mother Church’s teaching;  and thus it can develop an increasing awareness of the presence and power of the Spirit Who alone can raise us up to more intimate life in and with Christ.

In the Church we have indeed Moses and the Prophets, but we have more, much more: we have Jesus, the Christ, and the beloved, only-begotten, Son of God, Who, through His Apostles and in the power of His Holy Spirit, still speaks to us today.  If we do not listen to Him and learn from His Spirit, no miracle, no extraordinary ‘spiritual’ experience can be of any help.

Do you feel dissatisfied, unfulfilled, in your life as a Christian in Mother Church at times?  Let that feeling be a blessing from God by recognizing it as dissatisfaction with yourself, and as a call from the Father for you to turn, away from yourself, to Christ, His Son, your Saviour:

In Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3);

a call to seek a deeper personal relationship with Him, to understand and love ever more and more His words brought to our mind in their integrity by the Holy Spirit in and through Mother Church’s teaching; for that has always been the prayer of Paul and the Apostles:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling (of you), what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (showing what He can make of you), and what is the surpassing greatness of His power (to protect and prosper you) toward us who believe.  (Ephesians 1:18-19)

And all that burned so ardently and compellingly in Paul as a result of his conviction that:

I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God Who has loved Me and given Himself up for Me.

Dear People of God, that P/personal awareness of Jesus as no mere ‘someone who died and rose again’, but as the Christ, the Son of God Who has loved ME is needed more than anything else in Mother Church today;  and only true desire, humble sincerity, and patient perseverance in simple prayer and obedience are needed to attain that oneness with Jesus, which can transform our experience of Catholic Faith as the delight of our human life, as the saving of Mother Church in our world today, and as an icon for all searching for fulfilent before God.     Just want sincerely, and pray patiently, that God’s will be done in you.       

25th Sunday Year C 2019

 25^th. Sunday of Year (C)

(Amos 8:4-7; 1^st. Letter to Timothy: 2:1-8; Saint Luke 16:1-13)

Dear People of God, there must be something of very great importance for us to understand in today’s Gospel reading because Our Lord is here presented as approving what was apparently quite wrong!

And that is precisely the point!  Our Blessed Lord wanted to shock His hearers and us, His present-day disciples and children of Mother Church, into not just hearing His words, but listening to His teaching, so as to ultimately appreciate and follow His advice:

Make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Look around you, dear People of God, at the vast majority of people so infected by lust for pleasure, power, and plenty; who, worshipping Mammon, deny there is any Personal God, and mock at the very idea of man having a moral conscience any broader, any deeper, than mere legality; people who can contemplate making public their secret abominations, not indeed to confess their sins but because they are confidently seeking the public sympathy of fellow sinners and the token acceptance of the many who know-not-what as regards morality other than that which is politically correct and popularly acceptable. They ‘staunchly’ regard themselves as people of principle despite being answerable only to whoever pays their wages and the state which enables them live in safety and enjoy spending those wages:

The children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

But alas, despite such native ‘prudence’, too many – including some spectacularly successful ‘idols’ in the sight of men, as well as many other abused and disabused youngsters and druggies more or less unknown to men – having no hope for eternal life, are finding it increasingly comforting to regard suicide as an available opt-out when things go wrong, or ‘pear-shaped’ in more modern terminology!

Let us therefore see what we can find in Jesus’ teaching, for, He comes to help those even at life’s extremity, where the devil and his counter-creation can only whisper about that opt-out, which actually means total surrender of one’s human dignity to his will for self-assertion, self-glory, and human undoing.  For the Devil is damned and his kingdom is one of damnation into which he aspires to finally draw all those presently consorting with him as did Eve of old to celebrate him there in his own ‘satanic dwellings’ of damnation.

Jesus is therefore most persistently insistent:

Make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Notice first of all the three focuses in that saying: ‘make friends’, ‘wealth ... fails’, ‘eternal dwellings’.

‘Make friends for yourselves’, Jesus says, for everyone suffering, everyone in need of whatever sort, needs friends, but to that end Jesus most earnestly recommends the steward’s ‘brutal’ honesty with regard to himself and his ability to face up to what was to come when he should lose his very, very good job!

That steward was truly honest to himself!!  What modern disbeliever and scoffer can contemplate eternity without most serious thought and secret prayer?  Of course, they say ‘no one ever comes back’, but that is only true against themselves, for countless saints have come back, Fatima and Lourdes are historically recognized!  No scoffer, however, has ever come back to prove that nothing but ‘nothingness’ lies around dearth’s dark and lonely corner!!

‘Wealth fails’, because ultimately it is only something, and not someone.  Things can be, are meant to be, possessed or used, by a someone, by a person; they can never of themselves, possess or use a person, other than by personal folly, enmity, or human greed and selfishness.  They cannot offer fulfilment for a human being.

‘Eternal dwellings’ because Jesus came to save men from sin and offer them salvation, a heavenly home as children of God; He has nothing to offer those who aspire to nothing but what is earthly:

Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.   (Mark 3:29)

But for those truly seeking to know about what Jesus is offering, friends are always available, even bought friends, yes, even friends bought by dishonest wealth!  Let us look closer at that.

In our parable the steward wrongfully used a measure of wealth at the expense of the owner who was a rich man, one who had amassed or acquired great wealth.  As such – amassed wealth -- it had unquestionably become ‘dishonest’ in the course of its being amassed, for one man cannot acquire an inequitable amount of money and power without others having, in some way, suffered during the course of that amassing process.

The rich man’s steward was about to be sacked for allegedly ‘wasting his master’s goods’ and such an unchallengeable dismissal on the basis of nothing other than a secret accusation was unjust.  Perhaps that is why the rich man could commend his unjust steward’s prudence!  But that is not why Jesus so urgently commends him to us:

I SAY TO YOU, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

That originally ‘dishonest’ wealth, having been dishonestly used by the steward for his own purposes, has had its double dishonesty somewhat cleansed by the steward using it for what was simply a measure of necessary self-protection against a not-to-be-questioned and life-threatening decision made against himself.  That is partly why Jesus could use this story to highlight the essential teaching He wished to make.

Jesus ‘commended the unjust steward’ to us, however, because He needed to emphasize the supreme importance of fear of God, and hope in Him sent to us for the one and only purpose of our salvation; salvation is of supreme importance and it is ultimately decided by the final stand we take in relation to Him Who originally made us for our blessing and His glory.

It is never too late to mend for Jesus ... what He recommends for even the most wayward, disorientated and depraved of sinners is, imitate the steward’s honesty with regard to yourself and your future now most imminent.   Make friends, Jesus advises and most urgently ‘implores’ ... finish your life with an act of supreme charity, say even one prayer to mankind’s supreme Friend, Jesus Himself ... but say it with the honesty to yourself and your situation shown by the steward in Jesus’ parable.