(Twenty-fifth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given
on September 20, 2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113:1-8;
1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16: 1-13.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-fifth Sunday 2019]
Here we have a very strange parable from Luke 16—a parable
that's extremely difficult to interpret.
And yet, I would say that this little story has a very important and
timely message for all Americans of the early 21st century—especially
all Catholic Americans. It concerns a corrupt steward who was guilty
of squandering his master's property.
That means quite simply that he was an embezzler. His boss had given him authority to manage
his estate, and he had deceitfully taken his boss “to the cleaners” in the
process. (The thought occurred to me the
other day: perhaps this guy was a first century ancestor of Bernie Madoff. Remember him?
He’s the financier who got a 150 year prison sentence in 2009 for taking
his clients to the cleaners to the tune of over $50 billion dollars!)
Anyway, this steward in the parable finally gets caught
with his hand in the till, and he's given the proverbial “boot.” But before the boss dismisses him, he tells
the embezzler to render an account of his stewardship. Now at this point, the
corrupt steward knows two things for certain: he knows that his present job is
history, and he knows that he'll soon be out on the street without any
friends. (You see, in first century
Palestine, stewards like this were deeply hated, because they normally charged
their master's debtors HUGE amounts of interest.) So the crafty steward makes a very prudent
decision: he decides to dispense with his “commission” in order to make some
new friends. He calls in his master's
debtors, and tells them to pay only the amount that they owe the master. Well, to put it mildly, those debtors must
have been ecstatic to hear this news!
They probably said to the steward, “Wow, you're a great guy. Thanks so much! If you ever need a favor, if you ever need a
job, just come and see us.” At that, the
steward probably responded (under his breath), “That's just what I was hoping
you'd say. You'll all be hearing from me
very soon.”
At that point, the master commends the steward for “acting prudently”. Not for being dishonest and embezzling his
money, but rather for being “prudent” and enterprising. The steward had a worldly goal (settling
affairs with his master and providing for his future), and he did what was
necessary within the law to achieve it.
Then Jesus offers this biting comment on the whole story: “For the
children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation
than are the children of light.” In
other words, “People with worldly ambitions will do almost anything to achieve
their goals: they'll make sacrifices, they'll plan, they'll study, they'll work
extremely hard like this steward did.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if people of faith had as much zeal for the
things of God? Wouldn't it be wonderful
if people of faith had as much concern about moral righteousness and about
getting to heaven?!”
I really believe that Jesus told this parable in order to
shake us and wake us up! And boy, do we
need a wake-up call right now in the United States of America! Because in our culture at the present time
it's not only the “children of this world” who take more initiative than the “children
of light”—it's also the UNGODLY who outdo the children of light in zeal and
determination. Think of the zeal of
militant atheists like Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher; think of the shameless
leaders of Planned Parenthood, who’ve turned baby-killing in the United States
into a multi-million dollar industry in recent decades. When they were exposed a few years ago for
selling fetal body parts, they should have been embarrassed and
humiliated. But they weren’t. In fact, many of their leaders and supporters
are more militant now than ever before!
Or how about the gay-rights activists in this country? For the last 40 or so years, mostly through
their willing accomplices in Hollywood and the media, they’ve effectively
“de-sensitized” the majority of our citizens to the immorality of homosexual
activity. That took a lot of hard
work—by a lot of people. But they had
the zeal and determination to do whatever needed to be done to change public
opinion on the matter. And for the most
part, sad to say, they’ve succeeded.
The same thing is now happening with transgenderism. Transgenderism used to be listed as a mental
disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. Then, late in 2012, it was suddenly removed
from the list. And what incredible, monumental
scientific discovery led to this radical change, you ask?
Well the truth is there was none. There was no science behind the change. The guys and gals at the American Psychiatric
Association simply bowed to social and political pressure from those who wanted
to make what’s abnormal seem normal.
And it’s only gotten worse since then. Now we even have drag queens reading stories
to little children in public libraries all over the country. Now isn’t that a great way to help young
people to understand their identity as male or female?
Can you imagine something like this happening 30 or 20—or
even 10—years ago?
I can’t.
Those of us who want to be numbered among the children of
light need to get a healthy dose of prudence and zeal ourselves—and we need to
get it quickly, because western culture is decaying all around us very quickly.
And this all has to begin, I believe, in Catholic and
Christian families, with parents who have prudence and zeal and who are willing
to discuss these difficult issues with their children—so that their children will
develop prudence and zeal in their young lives and not be taken in by the lies
of the world. Don’t count on their
schools or colleges to do it! Even
though we have many great teachers out there, all too many of them these days
are among those who are promoting the lies (and that includes many who teach at
Catholic institutions!). St. Paul says
in today’s second reading that God wants everyone to be saved and to come to
know the truth. That truth should be
learned first in a person’s family, and then it should be reaffirmed and reinforced
in a person’s church—which is what we try to do here at St. Pius. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why we’re
starting youth group again next Sunday night at Junk and Java: we want to
reaffirm and reinforce what these young people are hearing (hopefully) at home
in their families.
“For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing
with their own generation than are the children of light.”
That was true when Jesus walked the face of this earth
2,000 years ago; unfortunately it’s still true today. But it doesn’t have to be true in the future!
At least for us, as individuals, it doesn’t have to be
true. By the grace of God, if we choose
we can be more prudent and zealous and passionate and have more initiative than
those who oppose us. And, if enough of
us—enough “children of light”—make this same choice, the decay can be stopped
and the culture can be turned around and saved.
Which means that we have to do our part as individuals and
as families; and then, as Msgr. Struck used to say, we have to “pray, pray,
pray”!