25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Our first reading, from the prophet Amos, is self-explanatory. He was writing in the 8th century B.C. This is a straightforward condemnation of dishonesty. But, while its injunctions may be readily understood, they are not so readily observed. Amos railed against swindlers and fixers since, ultimately, the buck would stop with the poor. That was the really insidious side of cheating: ultimately it is the weak and the poor who will suffer down the line. As with all the Old Testament prophets, Amos regarded justice as the evidence of love and the condition for peace.
Our second reading, from Paul's letter to Timothy, is anchored very much in its own time and culture. The Christians were viewed with a mixture of contempt and suspicion by the Roman authorities. They were suspected of all sorts of conspiracies against the state. Timothy had written to Paul to enquire if it were right and proper to pray for those in authority, for the very people who viewed them with such suspicion. In short, is it right to pray for your enemies? Paul writes back and tells them to offer all sorts of prayers for those in authority 'so that we might be able to live reverent and religious lives in peace and quiet.' Diplomacy rather than piety seems to have been the principal driving force here.
Today's gospel does present believers with a real difficulty. It highlights the problems presented by taking everything in the scriptures literally. For instance if we were to take that gospel we just read at its face value, we would have to come to the conclusion that Jesus was a cynical manipulator of gullible people. He appears to admire an unscrupulous manager for his astuteness. "Use money, tainted as it is, to win friends and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity", he advises his followers. This parable has puzzled and confused many Christian writers down the ages. How are we to get around the apparent fact that the Master himself is advocating dishonesty?
The key sentence in the entire passage is the following: "The children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light." Jesus consistently presents his message to his followers as an immediate challenge. All his disciples are presented as having decided to follow him in a rash moment. They left their nets at once and followed him. He lays great stress on the urgency of his message. "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand", was his most famous message. His presence and his message demanded immediate repentance. He presented his followers with a crisis; he led them to the crossroads: they had to decide immediately which road to take.
The point of the parable in today's gospel is that, in the secular world of commerce, in the market square, dealers are called upon to make daily decisions on the spot. They have to think on their feet and take decisions -no matter how crude- that will affect their commercial future for good or ill. Much more important decisions are demanded in the world of the spirit; consequently these spiritual decisions (repentance and conversion) should be expedited with even greater urgency and astuteness than displayed by the admittedly astute dealer in today's gospel. In other words, Jesus is not interested in the nature of the decisions taken by the steward in today's gospel; he is merely interested in the urgency with which he acts. He recommends a similar urgency to his followers.