25th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Amos
8, 4-7; Psalm 113, 1-2,.4-6, 7-8; 1 Timothy 2,1-8; St. Luke 16, 1-13
There is a story about a department-store clerk who
had broken all sales records. The
manager called her for verification. So she explained to her boss, “A customer
came in and I sold him some fishhooks. ‘You will need a line for those hooks,’
I said, and sold him some line. Then I told him, ‘You have to have a rod to go
with the line,’ and I sold him a rod. ‘You ought to have a boat so you can use
your new rod in deep water,’ I suggested and sold him a boat. Next I told him,
‘You’ll need a boat trailer,’ and he fell for that too. Finally, I said, ‘How
will you pull the trailer without a car? And guess what? He bought my car.” And
the boss said, “But I thought I assigned you to the greeting-card department NOT
to the fishing-equipment department?” “That’s right,” the salesgirl nodded. “This
customer came in for a get-well card for his girlfriend who had a broken hip.
When I heard that, I said to him, ‘You haven’t got anything to do for six
weeks, so you might as well go fishing”.
This story illustrates Jesus’ remark in today’s gospel
when he said that the children of this world are more astute in dealing with
their own kind than are the children of light. Another word for astute is shrewd and the original meaning for “shrewd”
is “foresight”. A shrewd person grasps a critical situation with resolution and
foresight. This is the point Jesus wants to bring across to us from today
gospel. The focus is not so much on the
dishonesty of the steward but on his ability to grasps a critical situation
with resolution and foresight. The next question, however, is why did Jesus use
the story of the dishonest steward? Because that was the common situation in
Jesus’ time. His audience at once understood the point of the story because
that’s the reality they had been seeing in their daily life. People were
cheating, people being dishonest and yet often the escape the penalty.
750 years before that, Amos, a prophet whom we heard
in the first reading today was also encountering the same situation. There was
a big gap between the riches and the poor. There were injustices and
exploitation to the poor, and yet in the midst of all manner of social abuse,
religious formalities were still observed. In other words, there was a double
standard kind of life within the people of Israel, there was hypocrisy.
Now, today, about 2007 years after Christ, what do we
see? Do we still see injustices? Do we still see dishonesty? Do we still see
hypocrisy? Yes, we do. So Jesus was right and still right when he said that
‘the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than
are the children of light’. The children
of the world are more cunning to deal with the worldly things. What happen with
us, who are supposed to be the children of light? Are we defeated by the power
of darkness? No. We still triumph over the darkness. Remember even a small
candle can illuminate a big dark room. Jesus has triumphed over the power of
darkness. And that’s irreversible. There might be some apparent defeats to the
Christian values but Christ is still in control. As we gather here today, at
this very moment, Christians all over the world are gathered to pray for the
various needs of the world.
St Paul’s
advice is still very much observed up to this present. The church all over the
world continues to offer petitions, intercessions and thanksgiving to God. Is
it not a concrete sign that Christ is still in control? He is till the
victorious. . He has sacrificed himself as a ransom for us so that we become
the children of light. But as children of light we must serve only God, and God
alone. He tells us in today’s gospel that no one can serve two masters.
And so gathered here this morning, let us acknowledge Jesus
Christ as our master and not the material things. Let’s be enlightened to be
more astute in bringing across the Good News to the world. But above all, let’s
be consoled because to-date Jesus in the Eucharist has been keeping the flame
of the Children of Light to shine to the world… and will continue to do so,
forever and ever. Amen.