As the Church marks the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Fr Edmund Power reflects on the parable of the unjust steward.
By Fr Edmund Power, OSB
The punchline of today’s gospel is entirely uncompromising: you cannot serve God and mammon. This challenging phrase of Jesus is repeated also in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 6:24), and with its contrast between two possible masters, it might suggest that “mammon” is a person. Indeed some have seen it as a demon or pagan deity. The safest course, perhaps, is to see it rather as a negative personification of wealth, especially money. There are probably few people who are entirely impervious to its attractions. Is it possible to live a life of total integrity, to avoid any form of ambiguity, for example with the payment of taxes? And if we believe that taxes are being used to fund questionable ventures, might that justify a surreptitious avoidance of the civic duty? It is difficult to give clear answers to such questions.
What is notable, however, is that the parable with which today’s text opens, is far from unambiguous and refers to a slick business practice that is actually commended by the employer who is about to sack his steward (for similar slick and dubious business practices?). If we dwell too closely on the details, we might get confused. What is the Lord actually telling us to do? To give dodgy discounts on someone else’s credits? To do everything possible for “number one”? The steward’s motivation is entirely selfish (that people may receive me into their houses), even if it might have the spin-off effect of an early payment to his employer. Is the employer himself entirely above board?
All of this speculation seems far from spiritual, even if no doubt pertinent to the so-called real world. Jesus concludes the parable by drawing a contrast between the shrewd, opportunistic and now dismissed steward (one of the sons of this world) and the unworldly sons of light. In which category would you place yourself? If the Lord is urging you to belong to the light, why does he then add the almost cynical comment, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon?
The parables of Jesus are never superficial and can rarely be explained in a simplistic way. They require a prayerful and meditative input on our part and maybe have something different to say to each one of us. If you want a straightforward message from the word of God today, go to the short first reading, from Amos, the earliest of the writing prophets. In defence of the poor and down-trodden, he fierily denounces the corrupt amassing of wealth and the manipulation of the markets. He was writing 2800 years ago: has much changed?
