Breaking the Word – Page 2367 – Rev. Dr. Victor Antonyraj SDB

06.11.10 FAITHFUL

Posted under Reflections on November 7th, 2010 by

I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him. And he said to them, “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God. (Lk 16:9-15)

Wealth is a killer. All the scandals and all the murders and all the fights are due to wealth. We do not know when a gift becomes a bribe. Can we make use of the money for the charity for business? Can we make money out of the donations received?

This passage contains some of Jesus’ strongest and most explicit warnings about the dangers of wealth. Money is not a possession. It is a trust. God has entrusted money to people to use it for God’s glory and for the service of his people and not for private possession.

Money also points us to the true wealth which is in heaven. We should not be torn between two masters. The Jews in general and Pharisees in particular believed that wealth was God’s blessing. Jesus says that God’s thinking is different from man’s understanding of things. When we think of money, property etc we take a step away from being truly human. The challenge is to be faithful:

Faithful in use of money

Faithful to god rather than money

Faithful in our hearts and not in the outward appearances

Faithful to the kingdom.

05.11.10 STEWARD

Posted under Reflections on November 3rd, 2010 by

Then he also 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 kors 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 are the children of light. (Lk 16:1-8)

The parable of the dishonest steward has to be understood in the light of the Palestinian custom. The master who lends things like oil or grain of wheat was obliged to receive the real amount together with interest which would also be in kind. So the debtors were obliged to return the real amount which was borrowed together with the amount which was agreed upon as interest for the borrowing.

At times the stewards who were acting as agents on behalf of their masters were obliged to receive this amount of interest as commission. The master would receive only the real amount that was given to the one who borrowed. The dishonesty of the steward consisted in the squandering of his master's property (Lk 16:1).

The master commends the dishonest steward who has forgone his own commission on the business transaction by having the debtors write new notes that reflected only the real amount owed the master (i.e., minus the steward's profit). The dishonest steward acts in this way in order he may be welcomed by the people when he left the job as the steward. The steward was interested in the relationship and friendship with the people than the material gain (the commission).