Luke 16: 1-8
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
No Time to Waste
The Parable of the Dishonest, or in kinder terms, the Shrewd Manager has always been a challenge for me to grasp. At first blush, it appears that the rich man is rewarding his manager for being deceitful. Though contrary to our teachings of honesty and justice, he is generously compensated for it. The manager has only recouped half of the money owed his boss and yet maintains his job along with a pat on the back for his creative solution. The manager is using all the resources at his fingertips to secure his own financial future. There is no time to be wasted if his actions can indeed lead to keeping his job and maintaining his self-preservation.
Isn’t this the directive of the Ignatian Principle and Foundation, to use all of the creator’s gifts to praise, reverence, and serve God? We, like the manager, go out of our way to preserve our way of life. We come up with ingenious solutions to secure our own financial future or bring to life our dreams of lavish possessions or tropical vacations. Are we just as resourceful when it comes to our inner being? The manager conveys a sense of urgency that we often lack in bringing forth the kingdom of God. Earlier in Luke, Jesus gave us the needed impetus: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!" He yearns for us to use this same creativity in accomplishing the goals of our spiritual lives.
—Tere Allen is a retired vice principal from Sacred Heart Nativity Schools in San Jose, California, who is now contemplating God through her Substack writing.
Prayer
Generous God, everything we have comes from you. You have called us to be responsible and shrewd stewards of creation. Teach us to use our time, resources, and gifts wisely so that all might benefit from your generosity. Develop in us the spark that will set fire to our spiritual lives and ignite the kingdom of God on earth.
In Jesus’s name we pray.
Amen
—Tere Allen
Pray with the Pope
