We have a recording and transcript for the first and the second is a written homily. This beautiful homily builds and builds to the most wonderful conclusion. One is our point of view. A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. And here, all of a sudden, we have another problem. It seems that the rich man is praising a dishonest man and, instead of apologising, he says everybody should be this way. He has been in charge of all the financing of the various debts. And now he will no longer have it. And he calls all the debtors in and he starts giving them wonderful bargains: ten thousand bottles of oil, all this kind of way. If he fires the steward and then calls the police and has him thrown in jail, the people are going to be very unhappy.
FAQ for Homily for 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Two Homilies
This is a peculiar parable. Why is it that we find Jesus at the end praising a dishonest person? What is there about the actions of the crooked steward that Jesus finds good and invites us to imitate?
Worship as Power
Use money to win you friends. A clear message in the gospels: Renunciation. The gospel of this Sunday took a lot of effort to prepare a sermon on. For one, this is one of the repeated themes in the gospels:. So, one thing comes out clear to me: Jesus consistently warns us against hording up earthly wealth. Nowhere in the gospels, does Jesus praise material wealth as a blessing, nor does he promise some sort of earthly reward for being faithful. Therefore, this is the first point of my reflection: as Christians we cannot simply justify our desire for wealth with the best of intentions.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel today tells us the servant who is trustworthy in small matters is trustworthy in great ones and the servant who cannot be trusted in small matters cannot be trusted in great ones. Most of us know from human experience that this saying is certainly true. Employers tend to put new employees who they think may have some special potential to work in a smaller project to determine some of their abilities before entrusting them with greater responsibilities. When we meet someone new and enter into friendship with them, usually our inclination is to have smaller engagements with that person until we come to understand that we can trust them to allow that person deeper into our lives and personal affairs. Jesus, however, is taking this very human reality a step further to explain to us a far more real and more serious kind of trust. Jesus is using the example of the less-than honest steward to show not that we should be dishonest, but that we should be prudent in our business with the things of this world, and not overly attached to them. You cannot serve two masters, Jesus declares to his followers. It is enough of an important biblical phrase that it is frequently repeated as a regular antiphon in the cycle of the Liturgy of the Hours , the official prayer of the Church, during Vespers or Evening Prayer. And why does the Church place so much stock in this statement? Most people who read this passage think that Mammon simply refers to money or wealth.
