1st Reading: Amos 8: 4-7
2nd Reading: 1 Timothy 2: 1-8
Gospel: Luke 16: 1-13
Homily: Vince Cushing OFM (paraphrased from notes taken)
It’s a pleasure to be with you today to reflect as a community upon the Word of God. Today’s Gospel is one of the most studied but also one of the most confusing. It must be put in the context of Jesus’ ministry. His central message was about the Kingdom of God. Growing up, many of us never heard about the Kingdom of God.
We know Jesus taught his followers in a variety of ways. One way was to use a parable: i.e., a story that makes a point. We are all familiar with the New Testament parable of the Prodigal Son which makes the point our Lord is one of forgiveness.
Another way Jesus taught was through miracles. A miracle is a parable in action. He used the miracle of healing to preach if you want to be part of my fellowship, you must be a healing church and people.
A third way Jesus taught was to use his own Hebrew scripture, the Old Testament.
Jesus teaches us about the meaning of God’s Kingdom by giving his disciples a practical idea of how to live.
In our first reading from Amos, Jesus is teaching about two things: injustice and greed – about the importance of not being unjust and greedy. We can update this message in this Season of Creation: creation is a gift of God in our midst; we must deal justly with earth and the resources given to us and not deal with them greedily.
Ronald Rolheiser gives this simple explanation of the parable of the unjust steward in today’s Gospel: Is this really the Gospel? Is Jesus really praising a person who is being doubly dishonest…a man who cheats his employer…the added craftiness of the steward’s action to have the masters’ debtors “cook the books” and revise their IOUs making them complicit in the steward’s crimes. And Jesus praises this? What are we to make of it? Jesus praises the steward’s ingenuity NOT his dishonesty.
Jesus teaches us in a variety of ways what it is to be a disciple of the Kingdom, what the good life is, what the virtuous life is.
Today’s parable is extraordinarily clever; it speaks of simple virtues: being a people of justice, generosity, and personal integrity. We live in a community that struggles to maintain its values, a community of disciples. In the PAX Community, we frequently talk about justice, helping the poor, generosity, and a degree of personal integrity…we must use our own intelligence in terms of living out our discipleship.
Let us pray we will hear what the Lord’s Word is about. If we are a people of generosity, justice, and giving our hearts will lead us in our faith.
For further insight into the parable in today’s Gospel, Mary Blissard shared this article “Thinking Anew: What Money Cannot Buy; A strange parable implies that we are to do what’s good, albeit in an imperfect world” https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2022/09/17/thinking-anew-what-money-cannot-buy/