A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Another time, Jesus said to his disciples, a rich man had a manager who was reported to him for dissipating his property. The he summoned the manager and said to him, what is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your service for it is about it is about to come to an end. The manager thought to himself, what shall I do next?
My employer is sure to dismiss me. I cannot dig ditches, and I am ashamed to go begging. I have it. Here is the way to make sure that people will take me into their homes when I am let go. In other words, fired.
So the manager called in each of his master's debtors, and said to the first debtor, how much do you owe my master? The man replied, a 100 jars of oil. The manager said, take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it 50. And then he said to a second debtor, how much do you owe? The man answered, a 100 measures of wheat.
The manager said, take your invoice and write 80. The owner then gave his devious employee credit for being enterprising. Why? Because the worldly this our lord speaking. Because the worldly take more initiative than the other worldly when it comes to dealing with their own kind.
Now that is the gospel excerpt for today. But I want to add what what immediately follows, which seems to me to be the gist of the matter. The owner then gave his devious employer credit for what I say to you, our lord says, is this, make friends for yourselves through the use of this world's goods so that when they fail you, a lasting reception will be yours. And this is the word of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
It seems to me that last sentence is is what is most important for us. The previous parable has problems because in this translation that we've read softens it. The original Greek is much stronger because it seems that our lord is at at the same time saying that the that the the manager cheated and that this and then he praises him. That's the way it seems. And that, of course, offers a problem.
But you see, the main thing for us is to grasp the idea of a parable. A parable is a is a medium. It's an instrument. It's a tool for teaching. Teaching.
And you can take a parable and pull it apart into its and get the bones of it, and then all you have are bones. A good parable, it's a story, and it's one of the best tools we have of teaching. The only difficulty with using parables, with using stories, if any of you have used them and trying to use them as a teaching tool, is this. Your hearers grasp the story and forget what you're trying to use it for. So the whole thing's lost.
For example, here, we can get so tied up with, well, did they did that manager do right or wrong? Is Christ praising the the the man who cheated his owner? And then we can go on and on and on. And that's not the point of this thing at all. The whole point of the of this parable, this story of our lord is to tell his hearers, use the things of this world for eternity.
That's what he's saying. Whatever you make of the story, you may like the story, you may not you may dislike it. You may pull it apart and and, of course, may I write volumes of commentary upon it. But the the the thrust of our lord's statement is not the story. It's what the story intends to teach.
And what our lord is telling us there is to use the things of this world for the next world and to be at least as smart in this world as the worldling is. He knows how to use things. You see, I find no difficulty here at all. It's because people don't think enough. They don't have any power of analysis.
But it perfectly alright for me to admire to admire a thief who's extremely clever in getting into a house and opening a safe and getting away. I can admire the whole thing. It doesn't mean that I approve of his thievery. I'm only saying he was a very smart thief. He was a very intelligent thief.
He was a very prudent thief. These are all very good qualities. The only thing is, thievery isn't supposed to be a very acceptable way of earning one's living. Of course, is in The United States now. I hasten to add.
Just read the last issue of the Reader's Digest. This is completely the last issue of the Reader's Digest. There's an article in there which is nothing but excerpts from newspapers of The United States Of America where these newspaper excerpts describe heinous crimes and what didn't happen to the criminals. Read it. It's nauseating.
But to come back to this thing, our blessed lord is telling us to be as smart as a worldly, to use the things of this world, not to abuse them, not to none use them. Notice, our lord says use them. If you don't put them in a safe and keep them apart from your life, you use them. But what for? Now that's the point.
I don't think we need Jesus Christ to tell us to use the things of this world. You know, Marx had a very good explanation of what drives people. And of course, he put it down to to an economic determinism, but translated that into common language. It means we like to eat, to drink, we like to have a house. And to get those things we need money.
And so according to Marx, the driving force of the world is human needs. Now that's almost indisputable. But is that enough for a Christian? See, is that enough for a Christian? And that's where our blessed lord comes in.
He doesn't tell us not to use the things of this world. He doesn't tell us to spurn them in this particular context. He tells us to use them, but to use them in a smart intelligent way. That is with a smartness, with an intelligence, with a prudence, with a reasonableness of a Christian of a Christian who is using these things as media to get someplace. And that's you see, this is this is actually this is actually the essence of the Christian's attitude towards worldly possessions, as we call it.
Put it in quotation, worldly possessions. Now if you read the lives of saints and if and if you read some theologians, you can get some very peculiar ideas. And some will even face up to the early early condition of the church where the first Christians held things in common. And from the word common, we get the word communism. And so you have have had and perhaps still have, I know you still have, earnest Christians who say that that's the ideal way of living.
The church never said that one tiniest littlest bit. The church never said that. Never. Never has it said it. And so today, as we listen to our lord, we are listening to his words.
Christ is speaking to us and he's telling us to be to be at least as smart as the worldly in using the things of this world. And that means that we use them for our ends just as the worldly uses them for his or her ends. And the end of the Christian, what is this? Go back to your Penny catechism, the old Baltimore catechism. I think it's the second question.
Why did God make you? And the answer given was, remember, this is what you gave to the first year kids. God made me to know him, to love him, to serve him in this world, so to as to be happy with him in the next. I have the utmost respect for that answer. It's a whole philosophy of life.
You can put that on the tiniest little card book index card. It won't take up one eighth of a card, and yet it's a summation of the Christian life. Complete. Complete. You can write a whole theology on it as has been done.
And so let us take to heart our lord here to use the things of this life not in an absolute absolute ownership, but in a way that they are simply tokens. Extremely important tokens, extremely important. Parents need to clothe and feed their children, to put a house over their roof, to give them an education. How do they do it? With a thing we call money.
Money. And having a lot of money is not a sin, as some would have you believe, but it's what you do with that money that really mounts because the money won't go into eternity with you. But what it can do will go into eternity with you, and that's good Catholic doctrine. Faith without good works, said Saint James, is dead, and Luther booted it out. He wouldn't accept it, but the church has accepted it.
And so take to heart these words. Look at your life. Where are your priorities? What comes first in your life? Do you evaluate things properly?
Properly. Not downgrading them, not over evaluating them, but properly. Again, the Christian life is a life of tension. We need god's grace, and we have his love. Depend on that.
The name of the father and of the son and holy spirit. Amen.