Sunday Homilies by Fr. Rudolf V. D’ Souza

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 25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 23, 2007 - Year:C
Amos 8:4-7; 1 Tim. 2:1-7; Lk. 16:1-13
You cannot serve both God and Money

First Reading...
“Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will measure out less and charge more, and tamper with the scales, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.” [Amos 8:4-7] 

Second Reading...
“My dearly beloved, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all; this was attested at the right time.

For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I am telling the truth, I am not lying.” [1 Tim. 2:1-7] 

Gospel Reading...
‘Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that the manager was squandering his property. So the rich man 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 shrewder in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.’

‘And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.’

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?’

‘No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’ [Lk. 16:1-13] 

Helpful Event:
Some years ago, in India, there was a famous Guru giving a talk to thousands of people. In the crowd were holy men, presidents, film stars, musicians and many, many others. Apparently when this man talked, his voice was kind of 'hypnotic' and people became entranced by his words.

When he had finished speaking, the Guru asked if there were any further questions. There was a silence as people absorbed what they had just heard…until a man stood up. He was a business type, a western, skeptical man and half-laughing he said to the Guru, "Alright then, if you know everything, what's the meaning of life?"

The man was trying to embarrass the Guru, to kind of belittle him. But, the Guru answered, "I'll answer your question, but first let me tell you something about yourself."

Now the man was the one that everyone was looking at and became uncomfortable.

"You have never been in love, have you?? Real, deep, true Love??"

"No", replied the man, now slightly embarrassed himself, "No, I haven't."

"Because..." said the Guru, "...a person who asks the question that you asked me, about the 'meaning of life', is really only telling you something about themselves. They have missed out on, or not experienced…love. Basically, a person who knew real Love, from their own direct, personal experience, would never even be able to ask the question, 'What is the meaning of life', because they would already know."

Life is something deeply connected with love and not money. That is why Jesus says, you cannot serve both God and money. God is love. There is nothing like love in our life.

Today's gospel asks us to look at some of our daily working practices and apply them in a religious context. There are good insights to be drawn from normal working practice, and lessons to be learnt.

The parable is about an estate manager who abuses his employer's trust, but is astute in looking after his own interests. We meet familiar elements of corporate organization. We meet a manager, a sacking, a whistle blower, customers or clients, and the need for financial and narrative reporting. Both the parable and the wider section of the gospel refer to trusteeship.

The estate manager is dodgy. He is dodgy for many reasons. He is dodgy for wasting money. He is dodgy for not being able to account for the assets of the enterprise. He is dodgy, probably, for taking his own commission, kickbacks, on transactions.

The manager abuses the system by using the enterprise assets for his own ends. He abuses his own very good powers of prudential management for his own ends. He is a worldly manager using worldly wisdom concerning worldly wealth.

Worshipping Wealth
Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) - Corrupted by Wealth
Wealth corrupts. We serve wealth, and we are dishonest about it. We hang onto it as if our lives depend on it and spend it as if it can buy happiness for ourselves. When help is needed, we become financially conservative. When we see something we want, money grows on trees. We are never satisfied with our salary, we don't like the way our taxes are spent, and we are tempted to exact compensation through dishonest means. Moreover, when windfall wanders our way, we can't help but grab for all the gusto it promises and we forget about other considerations. Most importantly we forget our role as the Creator's managers of creation. Assigned to manage creation, we instead squander it on ourselves.

Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) - Faithful to Wealth
Wealth also demands our trust. "Money makes the world go round," as the saying goes. In theory, it may well be a rational approach to life in a capitalistic society, but that only underscores the real problem with it: the faithfulness that Christ asks for cannot be allowed to damage the bottom line (or else one is accused of the evil called "socialism"). Faithfulness does abound. Aid given to the poor and homeless is called "welfare" and a certain amount of charity is lauded as good community citizenship.

Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Eternal Problem) - Destroyed by Wealth
Christ puts it, we end up with nothing that is truly our own - possessions have subsumed our identity, and none of it is true. Not one earthly possession or coin will cross the threshold of death with us. Earthly riches will extract all our devotion and give us nothing in return for it, and our allegiance to such riches keeps us from God's providence.

PROGNOSIS: Rich in the Blessings of Christ

Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Eternal Solution) - Christ's True Riches Squandered for Us

The manager in Jesus' parable resembles certain characters in this decade's business scandals. Jesus showers God's wealth on the least productive members of society and on those who do not merit anything but scorn, often in defiance of the law of Moses. In economic terms, his investment program is fiscally irresponsible, not even worthy of consideration. Surely he was sent here to promote God's own law, but if so, he had a very peculiar way of doing it. As Jesus points out in his parable, what the dishonest manager does while he is still employed seems to be binding on his employer. Sure enough, God is compelled to sign on to this radical new economy. But in Jesus, God silences all charges of scam by suffering the dishonest manager's punishment on the cross. And in Jesus, God makes alliances with all sinners so that his economic plan can go forward undeterred by death.

Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) - Faithfulness Born in Christ's Wastefulness

One difference between Jesus' honesty and our honesty is that while ours serves our selfish desires at the expense of others, his serves the needs of others at the expense of his own life. And what he did for us builds a relationship with us, just as the dishonest manager built relationships with his master's debtors. For sinners who are facing an unplayable debt, it may at first seem ridiculous to have that burden lifted for free, but if it is the master's wish, who are we to argue? Besides, it isn't simply a "trick of the pen." Through faith in Christ, nurtured by the Holy Spirit, we learn to surrender our need to earn our own righteousness and find the freedom that comes from the righteousness we receive from Christ.

Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution) - Blessing the World with the Riches of Christ

The dishonest manager in the parable did not care what the world thought of him. He had his master's authorization and that was all that mattered. So do we, from our master who has guaranteed an eternal, joyous future for us. We use the grace that God has given us, along with the finite resources that God has blessed us with, to form the same kinds of relationships with others Christ formed with us, bringing to them the economy by which their debts are paid by Christ.

Conclusion
When a person forgets that he has a soul, that his source is rooted in eternal Being, separation results, and from separation all other pain and suffering follows.

1.  A person thinks that only material existence is real and thus becomes totally ignorant of the source. He accepts the illusion of time and space. When this happens, contact with the source is lost. The voice of the soul begins to grow fainter and fainter.

2. Drifting in separation, the person seeks desperately for something to cling to. Life cannot abide without a foundation; therefore the mind creates an entity known as the ego. This “I” is the same as the personality. It is constructed from all kinds of experiences, and as these become all-important, the “I” and its needs have to be defended at all costs.

3.  The ego has many needs, and so it begins to value the fulfillment of those needs. The whole world becomes a means to make the ego stronger, more important, and more secure. To that end, it pulls all kinds of objects toward itself; food, shelter, clothing, money, etc.

4.  This strategy seems to work for a short time. Although it never becomes truly secure, the ego finds that life can be filled up by acquiring more and more. No one can gain complete control over the environment, however; therefore the ego has to spend a great deal of time avoiding pain and danger. As attractive as certain things are, others are equally repulsive.

5.  Caught in a whirlwind of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, the person achieves many goals. The years pass, and separation does not even seem to be a problem anymore. However, there is an end to all this acquiring, all this experience for the sake of experience. Over it all looms the certainty that life will end. Fear of death becomes a source of suffering because death is the undeniable reminder that the ego’s strategy for survival never solved the original problem-ignorance about how things really work.  

So does the unfaithful manager mismanages the resources and becomes a victim of this mismanagement himself in the end. No one can save such a kind.

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?’

Practical Conclusions:
We all know how to take care of the things that are entrusted with us. But in the long run we fail to keep track of things that happen to us and to the things that are entrusted with us. Some simple examples will clarify this. Today more than ever the use of mobile phones is in vogue. At times we use this instrument as if it were the only thing that we have. When we use it recklessly until we realize that a lot of money has been spent. The use of electronic gadgets, using them for a purpose is fine. When these gadgets become the centre of our life? There are such concerns everywhere and in every field. These concerns can spread to food, rest, recreation etc. Are we faithful managers of all these earthly things?

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

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