Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 8, 2024
Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward
who was reported to him for squandering his property.
He summoned him and said,
‘What is this I hear about you?
Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.’
The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do,
now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’
He called in his master’s debtors one by one.
To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.
Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’
Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note;
write one for eighty.’
And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.
For the children of this world
are more prudent in dealing with their own generation
than the children of light.”
Following immediately after one of the most beloved passages in the Bible, the parable of the Prodigal Son, we encounter one of the Bible’s most confusing passages, the parable of the Dishonest Steward. Questions abound: why does Jesus tell a story that commends a dishonest steward? Why does Jesus say, “The children of this world are more prudent” than the “children of light”?
Scripture can be inscrutable, but today’s reading is not as difficult as it first appears. This passage contrasts ordinary human behavior, which Jesus labels prudent but dishonest, with that of Jesus’s followers, who are by implication honest but imprudent.
The steward prudently found a way to survive by being generous with his master’s debtors. Jesus invites his followers to imitate the steward by using their money to plan for the future. For Luke, however, this doesn’t mean saving up treasure for this life but serving God by giving to the poor. The key to the whole passage appears just after the portion quoted here.
Jesus says, “I say to you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest mammon (or “unrighteous money”), so that when it runs out, they will receive you into eternal dwelling places” [author’s translation]. In other words, the children of this world know how to protect themselves by making friends with money. The children of light should do the same but with the goal of attaining eternal life.
As Jesus put it a little earlier in Luke’s Gospel, those who want to plan for the future should sell their possessions and give to the poor (12:33). This parable doesn’t praise unscrupulous business practices. Rather, it invites us to ask ourselves if we are serious about serving God with our possessions.
Prayer
Merciful God, you know that we fall short of our desire to follow you. Help us to see the ways that we, too, suffer from a lack of strength and an excess of shame that we may more readily confess, repent, and continue to serve you. Help us to depend more on those we love than on our own material resources, for it is in encountering others that we truly learn to serve and to love and therefore to follow you as we desire. Amen.
Saint of the Day
We do not know much about Pope Deusdedit, also called Adeodatus I, but the fragments of his biography that have been passed down to us certainly qualify him as a saint.
He was a Roman who lived after the fall of Rome—his society was troubled by unrest and civil disorder.
He was only pope for three years, but during that time, he led the clergy of the church in caring for the poor and the sick. When an earthquake ravaged the city and left behind a disorder of the skin that afflicted many people, he was front and center in the effort to care for them.
He was the first pope to seal documents with a bullae, a leaden seal—this is the source of the term “papal bulls” that continue to describe letters from the pope. One of his seals still exists today.
Deusdedit died in 618 and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
Pope St. Deusdedit, who used his short pontificate to care for the sick and poor, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Pope St. Deusdedit is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed October 10, 2024
