Reflection
In today’s Gospel, we hear the parable of the Unjust or Dishonest Steward. The foundational principal Jesus gives us is that everything we possess belongs entirely to God, and we are merely stewards charged with using those resources for His Kingdom. From this principal four spiritual insights emerge.
The absolute starting point of the Christian life is recognizing that God is the Master and true owner of everything. We tend to look at our wealth, our time, our talents, and our families and say, "This is mine." In truth, we own nothing. We are merely managers (stewards). Stewardship of God's property doesn't just mean not blowing money on reckless living; it means using the resources God gave us for the good of others.
One of the most confusing aspects of today’s Gospel is why the master commends a dishonest manager. The reflection clarifies that Jesus is not praising the man's theft, but rather his decisiveness and urgency when facing a crisis. People in today’s business and secular world exert immense creativity, long hours, and relentless strategic thinking to secure their financial futures. Jesus laments that believers rarely show that same fire, urgency, or cleverness when it comes to securing their eternal futures. If we worked as hard for the Kingdom of God as we do for our retirement accounts, the world would look entirely different.
The steward’s use of his current power and authority, namely, to ensure his future life, speaks to our Christian call to stewardship, almsgiving, generosity, and forgiveness. We are called to use the temporary, fleeting wealth of this earth to "buy" ourselves an eternal home—by pouring those resources into helping the poor, forgiving the debts of others, and building up the Church.
This parable serves as a stark reminder that our time on earth is a limited deployment. One day, the Master will call each of us forward and ask us how we spent His money, how we used His time, and how we leveraged the gifts He trusted to our care. This reminds us of the Church’s teaching on the “Four Last Things,” Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. We will die. Death, while not the end spiritually, will take away our earthly life. We will face judgment, most likely our “particular Judgment” if we die before the end of the world. We will come before Jesus and He will ask us how we used the extraordinary gift of freedom to live our lives on earth. Did we choose to accept Jesus’ free offer of salvation and live accordingly? If so, Jesus will welcome us into Heaven. Or did we choose to turn away from Jesus’ salvation and live according to our own desires and standards for living? In this case, we have chosen to spend eternity in Hell.
Jesus does not choose where we spend eternity. We do.
Today’s Question for Prayer and Reflection
How am I using my time, talent and treasure in my brief time in this life?
Source for today’s reflection https://epriest.com/reflections/view/3240