The Shrewd and the Faithful.

Luke 16: 1-13

Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account 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 more shrewd 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.’

In reading this parable we can make a very confusing mistake by assuming that the rich man represents God. He’s not God. He’s just a rich man who was shrewd enough to recognize and appreciate shrewdness in another.  It takes one to know one, sort of thing. It doesn’t say that the manager was completely let off the hook; it just says that the rich man commended him for his astuteness and Jesus points out that people in the world are more shrewd in dealing with the world than the children of God are in dealing with the world - and the spiritual life. If you can’t be faithful to the Gospel at every point in your life even if you’re interacting with those who only care about their own gain, then you will not be able to be faithful when it comes to true inner riches. “And if you have not been faithful (to Christ) with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?”

This week’s gospel once again brings us to a place where there needs to be some healthy self-examination. We all need to understand that simply shifting around one’s attitude towards money and wealth isn’t necessarily going to procure the kind of faithfulness Christ is talking about. It’s the relationship with God that needs to be diligently sought after. It is what will bring everything else into line and what is needed to recognize this principle is kingdom shrewdness.

Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. was the General of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. As a priest in Japan he experienced imprisonment, deprivation and suffering and was a man who deeply identified with the poor. He wrote the following:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in an absolute final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evening, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

When visiting a Jesuit province in Latin America, Fr. Arrupe celebrated the Mass in a suburban slum, the poorest in the region. Fr. Arrupe was moved by the attentiveness and respect with which the people celebrated the Mass. His hands trembled as he distributed communion and watched the tears fall from the faces of the communicants.

Afterwards, one especially large man invited Fr. Arrupe to his home. The man’s home was a half-falling shack. The man seated him in a rickety chair and invited Fr. Arrupe to observe the setting sun with him. After the sun went down, the man explained that he was so grateful for what Arrupe had brought to the community that he wanted to share the only gift he had, the opportunity to share in the beautiful setting sun.

Arrupe reflected, “He gave me his hand. As I was leaving, I thought: ‘I have met very few hearts that are so kind.’”

The poor man was a shrewd man and Fr. Arrupe knew it. It takes one to know one. It takes a person who knows God deeply to be able to recognize another heart that has discovered true wealth. The man in Fr. Arrupe’s story lived in a falling down shack yet he had a deeply grateful heart and was intensely aware of who it was that authored the magnificent gift of the Eucharist and of a sunset. He shared with Fr. Arrupe all the wealth he had – and what wealth it was!

We who are relatively rich in material possessions and who walk daily in religious freedom and choice are often guilty of squandering and being unfaithful to the immense wealth God has given us, wealth such as an easily accessible Eucharist or a setting sun.

Kingdom shrewdness is a gift but we need to ask for it and practice it. It is a heart that astutely watches and waits for the presence of God always and everywhere. It is a heart that has the ability to recognize true wealth and to recognize what will bring peace and what will create an unhealthy avaricious longing for more and more. It is a spirit so wise that it yearns for the riches of God’s grace and love and so finds God’s grace and love in unexpected places.

Challenge: look at the most confrontational or wounding problem in your life right now. Are you simply hoping it will all work itself out in a way that gets you off the hook? Are you wrangling with self-defensiveness and endeavoring to control everything and everyone according to your agenda? Are you tempted to blame other people or things for your problem?

Or are you desiring, praying for and actively seeking a creative Spirit led solution that will bring forth a deeper and more gracious understanding of who God is and who you really are as well as bless everyone involved in the problem?

Now that’s kingdom shrewdness.