Rom. 8:12-17; Lk. 16:1-9
This is one
of the most difficult parables in the Gospels.
It takes us aback that the dishonest servant could be commended. It begins to become clearer when we realize
that in the ancient world, the slave, or the steward, had great discretionary
power over his master’s goods. This
steward, in a crisis, about to be let go, was decisive and resourceful, and the
interpretative saying at the end of the Gospel makes sense, “make friends for
yourself through the use of this world’s goods, so that when they fail you, you
may have a lasting reception.”
The
critical reality of our lives is that we were made for heaven. While we live in the world with all its
demands and distractions, how intent are we upon our final end and purpose in
life? God has given us all a portion of
this world’s goods, but we know they are not an end in themselves. They cannot make us happy or fulfill us. We should use them to fulfill our purpose,
according to our vocation and state in life, so that when they fail us, we will
have a lasting reception with God. Our
good works go with us. The point is
well-taken.
There is
yet another more subtle interpretation of this parable. There is no denying that a great disparity exists
between what the master’s debtors owed and what they were forgiven from the
master’s store. In fact, the disparity
is purposely exaggerated. One hundred
barrels of oil is a huge debt; who of us could use 100 barrels of oil in a
lifetime? And 100 quarters of wheat is the
yield of a hundred acres. In light of
the Epistle, the parable is about God’s mercy.
The master is the Father. The
Lord is not the unjust steward, but the Just One: “Everything has been given over to me by my
Father.” And we are debtors because of
our sins. But not only debtors, sons and
daughters, and heirs, as well, by the forgiveness of sins, whole and entire, writing
off the debt through the cost of His Blood.
There is no
parity between the measure of our sins and the infinite love and mercy of God,
always willing and ready to forgive us.
For this reason, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, reflecting on the passion of
the Lord, recalls the good thief, crucified with Him, who for all his sins, in
a single act of repentance, won redemption.
Archbishop Sheen says of him in a wonderful turn of phrase, “The good
thief stole heaven.”
So we must never
be discouraged, and never lose faith, that while we live in the world with all
its demands and distractions seeking our purpose in heaven’s end, that we have
a Divine Steward of all the graces of God, who forgives the debt, not for Him,
but for us, that we may have a lasting reception in heaven.
