OPEN OUR HEARTS, O LORD, TO ACCEPT THE WORDS OF YOUR SON(Amos 8:4-7/Psalm 113:1-2,4-8/1 Timothy 2:1-8/Luke 16:1-13)

OPEN OUR HEARTS, O LORD TO ACCEPT THE WORDS OF YOUR SON

(SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2019
25TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C)

The liturgy of today offers us a very wonderful them to reflect upon. Prophet Amos is well known Prophet who preached against social injustice among the people of his time especially on the high level of marginalization and suppression of the poor by the rich and the political class.

The prophet Amos has had four visions granted him by God concerning Israel. A swarm of locusts, a drought, a measuring plumb-line and the one which opens the chapter from which our First Reading comes, a basket of fruit. All four visions indicate that Israel has not been faithful to their relationship with God. They literally do not measure up. The fruit in the basket is rotten and so is Israel in the eyes of the prophet. God means to punish Israel for not being fruitfully faithful.
Amos has been announcing their crooked ways and has been charged not to speak any further. Of course, he has to, because the Word is in him. What we hear is such a denunciation of the unjust business practices of the times. When Amos had pleaded with God not to send pestilence upon the people, God had relented, but through the preaching of Amos, things have not improved. What we hear today is another warning to those practicing crooked dealings. Amos mimics their usual complaints, “When will the Sabbath be over, the celebration of the new moon so we can get back to work.” There are corners to be cut, the cheating to be extended.
Then Amos speaks for God that God will remember every little cheating corner they have done. Amos is no longer going to try to argue God out of the divine plan as pictured in the visions, but he will not discontinue his prophetic warnings.

The Gospel continues Luke’s challenging of those who are greedy and centered on wealth. We hear first a parable which does need some study for understanding. A trusted servant has betrayed his master and not dealt well with the master’s property. He is summoned and his job is terminated. He reflects that he is in bad shape in terms of the future. He makes little deals with his fellow servants by which he asks various fellow servants how much they owe the master. He tells them to consider the debt officially much less. In this way, he makes good friends with these fellow servants who in turn will remember him in the days of need ahead.

The master, upon finding out about this, commends the trickiness of the servant which he says is prudent.
Jesus finishes the parable and then says something seemingly a bit crooked too “for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light. I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents.”

What exactly is it that Jesus is approving here? Deceit? Surely not. Stealing? Never. Dishonesty? I think not. Not really. We find statements that we should be trustworthy in handling worldly wealth so that we will find true riches. We cannot serve God and money.
Money is indeed a big topic for Luke, and he always cautions against using it unwisely.

The “unrighteous mammon” mentioned in this gospel does not refer to money gained by dishonest means. Rather it means the wealth of this world, all of which is tainted and temporary, which is to be distinguished from the treasure in heaven.
Money is not an end in itself; it is a resource. And if we believe the message of stewardship in the Bible, all that we have belongs to God. We are indeed merely stewards, like the man in our story. And we should not squander the Master’s resources. We need to be trustworthy with little so that we can be trusted with much. God does want us to be shrewd with the wealth that God has entrusted to us so that we serve God and people in need.
Jesus affirms that the sinful people of this generation are more prudent in their usual dealings, than are the “children of light.” Then Jesus says that all should make friends with wealth because it will fail in the long run and the resulting wisdom will lead to the eternal dwelling.

The Gospel closes with proverb-like sayings about those who are faithful with the smaller things will be trusted with the larger and the opposite is true as well.
Money, when it is not our master, can do great and wonderful things. The “children of light” are those who try to live toward the good, the Light. As children of the light, we are invited to be prudent about what is important ultimately to us as those who are of “this generation”, who like the unworthy servant, are prudent for what they think is the “long term.”

This is not an easy parable, but it does fit into Luke’s basic theme of living wisely with the gifts the Giver or Lord has given us. “Wisely” for Luke has to do more with our distribution of wealth than its accumulation. The steward was unwise in his use of the master’s wealth. He was wise, according to Jesus, by making friends with the master’s other servants by reducing their debts.

A good question might be asked here: Did the steward cheat his master by this reduction, or did he reduce their debt by the exact amount his master was owing to him? Whatever was going on, Jesus reflecting on the story reminds His followers to try to make life-long friends with wealth, because when they do, they will find out how short-lived that friendship really is.
But there is a second possibility for interpreting Jesus’ message. He may have been praising decisive action. When this man discovered that his livelihood was threatened, he proved resourceful and clever.

In his determination to provide for himself and his family, he took strong actions in a crisis situation.
Other people may have frozen up and lost hope on what to do if faced with the situation of this dishonest steward. They would become immobilized and do nothing. This man neither buried his head nor folded his arms but he worked out something and executed immediately on how to solve his problem. Jesus advises that we too should take decisive action, especially about our spiritual lives.
When we find ourselves drifting spiritually, we must take decisive action. Every now and then, we invite people to make decisions for Christ. Jesus would advise us to respond to the invitation – to take action.

Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus, give me the grace to hold unto your firmly, may I use the gift you have given to me to help those in need. Amen.