A homily preached by Fr Fabian Radcliffe OP at the English College, Rome, during the Newman Association Pilgrimage, reflecting on Luke 16:1–13 and the parable of the dishonest steward.
Gospel reading: Luke 16: 1 – 13: "No servant can be the slave of two masters…..you cannot be the slave both of God and of money."
Today's Gospel reading probably strikes a familiar note. It's about a man who is going to lose his job, and is worried about his future. How will he afford to live? He is called a "steward", but perhaps a better word would be "manager". He hasn't been too honest with his employer's property; wasting it perhaps, or even embezzling it; so he is for the sack. But how will he find a new job? He is not robust enough for manual work, which seems to be the only employment available. And he would be ashamed to beg. In any case begging is an unreliable source of income. But he hits on a clever idea which promises to give him security in the future.
To understand it, you need to know something about the financial and business practices of the time. Jews were forbidden by the Mosaic Law to lend money on interest. But one way in which people got round this law was to lend in kind, not in cash. So you might lend, say, fifty barrels of oil, which the borrower could then convert into cash. But you would require a hundred barrels to be paid back, the equivalent of 100% interest. Because the transaction was carried out in goods rather than in cash, it was not regarded as breaking the Jewish law. So the man in the story is using his authority as a manager to cancel the interest, and simply requires the borrowers to repay what they had originally borrowed. No wonder they were grateful to him, and would look after him when he lost his job.
Of course the manager's action was dishonest. But he was no more dishonest than his employer, which was why the manager could get away with it. If his actions were examined by law, his employer's illegal behaviour would also come to light. So the employer could hardly make a complaint. In fact, he recognised the shrewdness of his manager, and praised him for it.
God's people are his stewards
Well, that's the story. But what's the point of it, for us? We can be sure that Jesus is not encouraging us to behave like the manager or his employer, and embark on shady business practices. So what is he saying? It's one of those stories that try to shock people into thinking about their own situation. Among the Jews, a story about an employer and his manager would be understood as saying something about God and His People, Israel. God is Creator. Therefore he is master, and his people are his stewards in creation. They had a responsibility not only to care for it, but also to lead others to the God who was the creator and saviour of them all.
The immediate thrust of many of Jesus' stories, especially in this part of Luke's Gospel, was to warn them that their day of reckoning was upon them. So here the story is saying that they are like a manager who is about to be sacked for failing to live up to his responsibilities. But it is still not too late. If they are shrewd and astute, like the manager was, they can still save themselves from disaster.
Jesus does not spell out, even in general, what they would have to do. The purpose of telling the story is to challenge people to think for themselves. Obviously he is not saying that they will save themselves by being dishonest in business, like the manager. But he is saying that they will be saved by showing the same astuteness as the manager, and adopting practices that reverse the way they have behaved in the past.
In practice, what did that mean for them? It meant listening with open hearts to what Jesus was saying. It meant following Jesus' own practice of welcoming the outsider. It meant pushing out the boundaries of the Kingdom, rather than narrowing them. It meant recognising in practice that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. It meant showing compassion and forgiveness and welcome to the sinner – and so on. That is what the story is designed to say to the listeners – and to us.
So: what about us? Why do we read this story? Perhaps we are not on the verge of crisis as the manager was, and the Jews were also. But every day is a judgement day for someone; and one day it will be our turn. And what will matter then is how much we have listened to Jesus now, and followed him now, and tried to live now with the same love and compassion as he did. The story makes us think about his love and compassion and forgiveness, which is what we celebrate and make present, in this and every Eucharist, and in every day of our lives.