Be Smart for the Kingdom of God

Sept 18^th, 2016  Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI
Am.8:4-7; Ps 113:1-2,4-8; 1Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13

Once a holy man was instructing his disciples as they walked through a wood. He pointed to a small oak tree sapling and asked one of his disciples to pull it up. The disciple did so with one hand. Then the master pointed to another oak, a little bigger than the first, and asked the disciple to pull it up. He did so but he had to use both hands. Finally, the master pointed to a larger oak and asked his disciple to pull that one up. Even with the help of all of his companions, he was unable to do so. And the master concluded, “That’s how it is with passions and habits. In the beginning, before they have sunk deep roots, it is easy to eradicate them. But if we allow them to sink deep roots, it becomes virtually impossible to rid ourselves of them. A faithful stewardship is possible only with true virtues. In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the story of an unscrupulous and dishonest steward who cunningly tried to secure his future at the loss of his master’s wealth.

Prophet Amos in the first reading reminds the Israelites to be faithful to their Covenant with Yahweh by practicing justice and mercy as God’s faithful stewards. St. Paul in the second reading instructs us to be the true stewards of the gospel of Jesus by preaching the “Good News” through our words and life.

Wisdom, in the sense of being smart or shrewd, as Jesus says in today’s parable of the dishonest steward, is not an end in itself. The reward depends upon the way we use smartness and wisdom in our stewardship, according to our Supreme Master’s plan. The smart ones, who use their smartness to do mean things, may be praised for their smartness for a short period, but can’t escape the punishment in long-term. Many anti-social people and terrorists are smart people who use their smartness to create unhappiness in the world. Both, in growth and in the destructive acts in this world we may see the efforts of smart people. But its effects depend upon the nature of their smartness. Today’s parable challenges us to be smart in the pursuit of the kingdom of God, just as godless people are smart in their pursuit of selfish goals and ambitions. In fulfilling our God-given roles and responsibilities, we should be positively smart enough to utilize our God-given talents and abilities to produce thirty fold, sixty fold, and hundred fold fruits. Otherwise, the children of darkness will take control of the situations with wicked means. Smartness without honesty is a disaster. So we should be shrewd and smart with faith and honesty.

Jesus uses the example of a dishonest smart steward to teach us to be smart in the Lord’s service. We are challenged to imitate the steward’s shrewdness, not his dishonesty. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly (Luke 16:8), not because he acted properly. God entrusted man the wealth of the universe to lead it to its fullness.  The wealth is a gift of God and righteous in itself. The same wealth becomes unrighteous and unholy by corruption, evil intentions, greed and sinful way of acquiring or accumulating it. If we find ourselves in an unrighteous wealth, we should be smart enough to come out of that condition and to make friends for the Kingdom of God by using that wealth in an honest way. In the hands of the children of the light, the earthly wealth becomes righteous due to the honest and wise use of it as per the plan of God.

In this world our business as followers of Christ, non-ordained as well as ordained believers, is to help bring about the kingdom of God, starting from our own selves. We are all called to be stewards. God has entrusted the whole of His creation into our hands as His stewards. Jesus Christ, in addition, entrusts the kingdom of God – the kingdom of love, justice and peace into our hands as his stewards. World peace and harmony, and the renewal of all things in Christ, are the business of us all, collectively and individually. Jesus calls it the kingdom of God. We have brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. The only thing we can take from this world is the friends we made for the Kingdom of God using the wealth of this world. As Jesus says, friends of meaningful relationships, ties of spiritual life-sharing, faith filled family ties in Christ, relationships which help grow in faith, love and charity, all these survive our death.  If we are wise, we will use our wealth- material and non-material, to make friends for eternal life with our eternal Master. Let us be wise and shrewd. God bless you.