8th
Sunday after Pentecost – July 22, 2012
(Epistle Romans 8: 12-17)
(Gospel Luke 16: 1-9)
The main idea in St.
Paul’s letter to the Romans is that we are unable to produce perfect justice
and absolute good without the grace of God. Nowadays many people have a
self-centered and pompous idea that the human mind is independent, but we
Christians believe that we can only be fully moral and honest in life by the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that the Gospel of Christ is the power
of God, that it makes unholy people holy and it enriches those souls that
search for perfect justice.
The Jews
were proud of the Law of Moses, and rightly so, because the Law gave them
greater grace and understanding than the Gentiles had. However, many Jews made
their whole virtue consist in the possession of the Law of Moses and thus
rejected the Messiah, Who Himself was the final purpose of the Law. St. Paul
asks in Romans 9: 30-33 how it is possible that
Israel, following the Law of justice, did not find the Messiah in Jesus but
many Gentiles, not following the Law of justice did reach Him. Paul answers his
own question: Because they did not seek Justice by faith and they tripped on
the stumbling-stone that Isaiah prophesied at Isaiah
8: 14 and 28: 16, “Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and a rock of
scandal; and whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded.”
Today’s
Gospel reading is a reminder of our judgment. Dom Guéranger wrote that we all
have the same very basic vocation – to live, to die, and to be judged. The
Unjust Steward in today’s parable was told to give an account of his
stewardship. Whatever we have in life, our spouse, our children, parents,
money, houses, cars, our personality traits, all the graces God gives us, it is
all given for us to use. We will be asked at our judgment if we have used these
things for good or for evil. When St. Augustine reflected on the accounting he
would have to give of all the graces given to him said, “How unhappy am I, what
will become of me, having received so many graces! I am more afraid on account
of these graces than on account of the many sins I committed.” We will be asked
about these graces: Where are your good works? Where are your prayers which
would have rejoiced my heart? Where are your Confessions and Communions which
would have caused Me to dwell in your soul?
Where are your penitential works which would have wiped out the temporal
punishment for past sins? Where are the Holy Masses that you should have
attended which would have brought you closer to Me? Let’s not appear before
Jesus at our judgment with a satchel full of sins. Let’s’ fill our satchels
with adoration, prayers and good works and we won’t be so terrified of what is
coming.
There is
another lesson in today’s Gospel reading and that is to encourage us in the
giving of alms.
As St. John Chrysostom put it:
“We are not placed in this life as lords of our own houses, but as guests . .
.” We are brought into life whether we wanted to come or not and at a time not
of our own choosing. He who is rich in this life is a beggar in eternity.
“Therefore, whoever you may be, know that you are but an administrator of
things” that belong to God and that we have only “the right of their brief and
passing use.”
When we do not administer our wealth in
accord with the will of our Master, but abuse it for our own pleasure, we are
unjust stewards. Riches possessed by a just man are simply a sum of money. But riches possessed by an unjust person are
a sinful burden of avarice – subject to the risk of loss or theft, a constant
source of worry, corrupting their owner with enticements to sin. These riches
are full of poverty. Don’t call your wealth riches. For if you call them
riches, you will love them: and if you love them, you will perish with them.
St. Gaudentius, who was bishop of Brescia,
Italy, from about 387 to around 410, gives the opinion that the Unjust Steward
in this parable stands for the devil. In Genesis, the devil is well depicted as
a snake, who is “more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth.” (Genesis. 3:1) In the Latin it is: serpens prudentissimus erat, where
prudence is not spoken of as a virtue but as craftiness and cunning. In the
parable of the Unjust Steward, the steward cheats his Master in order to
ingratiate himself with others who might hire him as a steward when he is let
go. The Lord praises him – but not for his goodness. He praises him because he
prepared his fraud with such cunning, craftiness and subtleness. By the very phrase “unjust steward” the Lord
condemns his wicked prudence. Christ praises him in order to prepare His
followers to be prudent, but not venomous; to be wise, but not evil, to use our
own cunning and prudence against the Unjust Steward, the devil.
The mammon of iniquity is usually thought
of as ill-gotten gains, but there is another interpretation by St. Augustine,
that it comprises all the riches of the world however they are obtained. Consider blessed Job, the undefeated champion
of God. Job’s courage was unshakable and he bested every assault of the devil
as he came against him with the force of a tidal wave. The more each attempt of
Satan appeared irresistible, the higher Job’s patience rose, superior to every
temptation. When Job finally lost everything and stood naked on the Earth, he
was truly rich because his heart was full towards God. Life and wealth are passing things, but we
are called to eternal life with our Creator. Eternal life with God is wealth
that brings lasting and worry-free security.
Who can allow us to enter into everlasting
blessings except the Lord? Yet, at the
end of the parable Jesus tells us to make “friends of the mammon of iniquity;
that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting blessings.” Understand
this parable then that we are to make friends of the poor with our wealth, so
that when we die the poor will pray for us and Christ will receive us into His
Kingdom. Why make friends of the poor? Because the Lord is poor. Christ tells
us in Matthew 25 that, “You gave me
to eat, to drink, you clothed me, you visited me when I was sick and in prison
– that as long as you did this to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.”
That’s how Christ is poor. And to be just stewards, we must give to the poor, who
are our fellow stewards in need.
The parable of the Unjust Steward doesn’t
stand alone in the Scriptures as unproven, because in Luke 19, we see an example of it in Christ’s life. When Jesus was
walking through Jericho, Zacheus, who was chief of the publicans, a tax
collector and a wealthy man, climbed a tree to see the Lord. When Jesus spotted
him, he said, “Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in
thy house.” Standing before Him then, Zacheus said, “‘Behold, Lord, ‘the half
of my goods I give to feed the poor.’”
We see Zacheus making friends of the poor by means of his mammon of
iniquity. And lest he should be held
wicked on other grounds Zacheus adds: “’And if I have wronged any man of anything,
I restore him fourfold.’” And Jesus said to him, “This day is salvation come to
this house.” +++
We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass
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