September 2016

We are tempted to say that this kind of reflection is political and not religious; the Church’s job is to deal with worship, we say. But the Bible says something else. Amos is not a professional prophet – he doesn’t earn his living by uttering prophecies at shrines and sanctuaries. He is an outsider, since his real job is as a shepherd and agriculturalist: people do not expect him to speak in God’s name. The Holy Land is split in two after the reign of King Solomon, and Amos belongs to the southern section, to Jerusalem and its hinterland, which is called Judah. But God sends him to the northern kingdom of Israel, precisely to preach justice. He addresses the people of both kingdoms. His description of the rich is bitterly sarcastic: ivory beds, luscious meals, drinking, self-indulgent entertainment. “Watch out,” he says: exile and deportation are just around the corner. Why? Because you have lived unjustly, because you have been corrupt, because you have appropriated the land of those who are poor, and reduced them to slavery. The well-being of the country as a whole is forgotten, because you, the rich, are selfish beyond words. St. Luke reminds us that Jesus was equally concerned with social justice. The story of the rich man and Lazarus seems to be about two individuals. The rich man dresses in purple and feasts magnificently, while at the the gate is Lazarus, starving and covered with sores. Jesus underlines sadly the inability of those who are rich to change their ways: “They will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”

Respect for every human person, human solidarity that is stronger that the urge to feather one’s own nest, these are central to the Church’s teaching. The Church offers the world her teaching on the Eucharist, her explanation of the Bible, directives on sexual morality, the beauty of pilgrimage, the rosary, lovely music. Catholic social teaching is not an optional add-on to these. It is an integral part of the same message. We can thank God that so many Christians have taken this to heart.

One of the stranger elements of parables is that they can seem at times to be encouraging behavior that may not be in line with the Gospel message of love and mercy. Kings are harsh; their stewards deceitful. The content is not necessarily moral as such. They are rather stories that highlights certain choices and predicaments, with the sting always in the tail. The end of today’s parable has the rich man praising his steward for his astuteness. He has managed to get himself out of a sticky situation by getting his master’s debtors on his side. What matters is his cleverness in avoiding the full consequences of his actions. Jesus does get exasperated at times by His followers and especially those who claim to be righteous. He has just told the parable of the prodigal son, a story aimed not so much at the wastrels of the world but at those like elder son who are self-righteous.

What is Jesus asking us to do? He isn’t asking us to be as deceitful as the steward, for he goes on to stay that you have to choose to be the servant either of God or of money. So what are the skills a follower of Jesus needs that display the same ability or astuteness in matters of the Gospel that unjust steward reveals in his commercial dealings? The main quality Jesus highlights, something the unjust steward is certainly not an example of, is trustworthiness. He also asks for freedom from greed and from a devotion to riches and money, again the opposite of the unjust steward. Jesus uses the example of the steward to turn upside down the world and call us to defend with the same energy and passion his new option for those who are poor. We are to use all our wit and wisdom to promote the values of the Gospel and the recognition of those who are vulnerable and weak in the eyes of the world.

Jesus is not requiring us all to go home and hate our families. He is calling His disciples to something quite radical. This is a passage that speaks of the great cost of discipleship, the cost of remaining close to Jesus. The difficult, costly thing is that this is loving in God’s way, and not only in the ordinary ways that make life secure and happier for ourselves.

All this means that to be Jesus’ friend and follower, we are called to live lives of loving others. This is costly: ultimately it costs our lives, which is why we cannot “love” our ambitions, plans, investments and so forth, as if they were the real things of living. What Jesus teaches, and what we see reflected in the lives of saints like Therese, is a way of loving that calls us beyond these things, a sharing in the Wisdom of God, who sees things differently from our world. This is one of the reasons the Church encourages us to “give” up things – through fasting and almsgiving, through the dedicating of time to prayer and care of people in need. Jesus promises, it is in this giving away of ourselves that we will draw close to Him, and discover a new way of living and loving. In such a culture we cling to what we possess, with a kind of love and, often, a kind of selfishness. Inspired by today’s readings, let us pray to be able to lift our eyes to look beyond our own concerns and learn to pay the cost of discipleship – the cost of a love beyond our own needs and wants.