Today's Message: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Amos 8: 4-7;  1 Timothy 2: 1-8; Luke 16: 1-13

How do I regard the people in my life?  The initial response to this question is ‘well, that depends.’  And what does it depend on, ‘It depends if they are family, neighbors, people I work with and am associated with, people at my church community and then those who appear in my life at times.’  So what forms the basis of my treatment of them?  ‘That depends on how well I like them, how they have treated me, if it’s worth my while to be nice to them…you know I just can’t like everyone!’  This is an accurate exchange of thoughts I had with a small group of people recently.  I never asked, ‘How does God expect us, and need us to treat others?’ 

This attention-getter was written in Sunday Homily Helps this week:  “Once a wonderful pueblo Indian woman told a young Franciscan how to pray.  She said: ‘First, you pray for the world, for everything and everyone in the world, everything in the sky, everything on the land, and everything under the earth because God made all of it.  So you pray for it.

   Then you pray for everything along the river. [She was talking about the Rio Grande, that ribbon of life-giving water that connects all the villages and all the people whom the Pueblo Indians encountered before they had any contact with Europeans.]

   Then you pray for your village, the people easy to like and the people hard to like too.  Then you pray for your neighbors, next door, on either side of you, across the way and around the corner.  Then you pray for your family.  And finally, if you have time left, and if you are not too tired, you pray for yourself.”

It is so hard for us to view creation as God views His creation.  Yet that is the subject matter of the readings today:  We were created in Gods’ image and likeness ultimately meaning that we treat all others in our life and in the whole world in a God-like way.  How am I doing?

Today’s reading from Amos follows a series of visions the prophet had in regard to the people living in the northern kingdom of Israel.  He had come from Judah to steer the king and these people in God’s direction.  They refused to listen.  The end result of this type of living, the prophet told them, would be a collapse of their world.  Why didn’t the people listen?  Amos shows how spiritual deafness comes mainly in looking out for themselves and not the poor and needy.  They are after monetary gain; they disregard the need to pray.  The new moon marked the beginning of the month.  It was a day of prayer and giving thanks to God.  The Sabbath was a day set aside each week for God.  But these people awaited the end of these days so they could return to their greed and deceiving of the poor and needy.  Amos reminds the people strongly and us that the treatment of the poor and needy will never be forgotten by God. (Amos 8:7:  “Never will I forget a thing they have done!”)

Paul requests that the community of faith offer prayers to God for the salvation of everyone, of the whole world.  This early Christian community in their worship continued to affirm and live their faith by strengthening their concept of what is a Christian community.  It exists for: devotion and dignity not only for the rulers but to be a part and parcel of their daily living as people who are redeemed and loved by God.  This needs to be constant and not sporadic. Jesus gave His life as a ransom for all people.  All are equal in God’s eyes.  All are important and special to God.  All are needy and need to see God’s love in each person who believes.  Am I doing this?

Luke shares the parable of the dishonest steward and its interpretation.  This story at first sight seems very strange but it contains what was the business practices of first century in Israel.  The bottom line is that those who have possessions should share them with the needy thus using their blessings to benefit others.  Now absentee landlords, the subject of the parable, were strongly disliked especially by the workers.  People often had to borrow from these landlords at a very high interest which compounded their debt in fact enslaving them to a type of servitude.  Every landlord had a steward to watch over his affairs.  In today’s parable the steward had been caught with his ‘hand in the cookie jar’ and he has been given his two-week notice.  This steward is quick to act.  Since he lived on commission, he readjusted the amount of debt the creators owed, which meant that he reduced his own commission.  This was very high since he is described as unjust, ‘squandering his master’s property.’ Hopefully when his job was terminated other owners would hire him because of his ingenuity.  Jesus isn’t advising this type of behavior, rather He is pointing out the shrewdness of the dishonest steward.  He knows his strengths and he knows his weaknesses and uses them to help himself and others. He learns a simple lesson, when we are good to others, they do good for us.  All of  God’s gifts are given to be shared.  Jesus adds that true wealth comes from relationships, not from objects or things.  Our lives are made to be freely shared in our relationships of love and trust, not in using and abusing.  

If we truly learn to pray for others, especially those we find difficult or who have hurt us in some way, we are not treating them as objects but as persons.  In a very true sense we are putting ourselves in their shoes.  We start to think about their needs and their problems.  We start to see that they are important people to the people who are in their lives.  We see that others depend on them just as we depend on others.  We begin to share God’s gifts from our hearts both in generosity and in gratitude.  We are living the ‘Golden Rule’.  At a meeting in Manila, Pope Francis reminded families that faith does not take us away from or out of the world but challenges us to participate more fully in it.  I am gifted, I am loved, I am called to share these, so that others will get in touch with their gifts and in sharing will be the sign of God’s love to all.  

So I reflect on:

• What practices help relive my faith more clearly?
• In what ways could I and those I live with and even extending this to our nation serve the poor the needy and the outcast?
• Can I as a Christian ever rightfully claim ownership to the things to the earth?
• Is there justice in any country using its natural resources as a bargaining pawn to get what it wants at the expense of the needy?
• Why is the abuse of natural resources, such as fouling air with pollution, dumping toxic materials into clean water, etc, a sin?  What should be my response to these types of practices?
• What can I do to remedy the abuse of God’s gift of natural resources?

Sacred Space 2019 states:

   “The point of this passage is the commendation of the dishonest steward, not for the moral quality of his behavior, but for his worldly prudence in using the things of this life to ensure his future in this life.  Believers should behave with prudence to ensure their eternal future.  One might reflect on how diligently people work for the goods that pass away while neglecting the goods that are eternal.

   I ask for the courage to be shrewd with my resources and to not be afraid to use my reason and influence for the good.”