Have Your Way Lord, ASTUTE FOR OUR SALVATION
Amos 8:4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13
“Pride goes before a fall,” we do say, but this proverbial knowledge has not helped us not to be proud. Obviously, the problem of human beings is not lack of knowledge, but the decision to use knowledge appropriately, to use it for good, is what is lacking. We spend years in schools in pursuit of knowledge, this knowledge becomes a tool for our alienation; that is, we do not even have power and control over what we manufacture with our knowledge. The worker at the brewery ends up an alcoholic. The maker of guns and defender of gun rights dies through the barrel of the gun. Diary Queen worker becomes a victim of diabetes and obesity. The list is endless, we die through the works of our hands – what a waste of knowledge?
Our first reading details how we use knowledge and intelligence negatively, to exploit others, instead of helping them. Our business knowledge milk others dry, instead of improving their economic and financial lot. We go to bed scheming and plotting evil, and spend our day executing evil. We fail to ask, why did God create my neighbor – a human being to be exploited or to be helped, protected and loved? Then and now, everything has a price, even human life: “We will buy the POOR for silver and the NEEDY for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?” (Amos 8:6). Are we better than the community of Amos, when we use aborted babies for cosmetic products to use and sell? Just one example of what we do!
Certainly, we have read our first reading of today over and over again, yet we do exactly the same things as people of old – exploit one another. Capitalism has legalized exploitation; there is no human being anymore, but creator of capital. There is no measure of humanity, but every country creates its stock exchange and foreign currency exchange markets, and similar ways and mechanisms to make money and extort others. The intelligence which the human person receives free-of-charge from God, he commercializes, and the God who gives him/her the intelligence doesn’t even get so much as a “thank you” – the exploitation of God!
“Have your way in my life, Lord,” is a prayer of surrender and a realization that God has it all figured out. Not as if my opinion does not count or that my intelligence, freely given me by God, and gratefully received from him, doesn’t matter; on the contrary, it is the docility with which I accept God’s plans that is essential for my salvation. The destiny of life is to live with God forever. It is impossible to know the direction to God more than God himself. To go to God is to be told where he lives and be invited into his presence. He calls us to himself, and points out the way to himself, all in the Sacred Scriptures. Astuteness for our salvation is all it takes, and that is the purpose of knowledge!
The maneuvering room available to a Christian is to be astute for his/her salvation, and not work out his/her damnation. The gospel story/parable shows a transfer of skills and knowledge, from a criminal use of knowledge and intelligence to enrich oneself and impoverish others, to CHARITY via winning capital for the rainy day, for the day of reckoning. Notice that the wasteful steward of our gospel is a step ahead of his master/employer. He was only told that there will be a day for him to render an account for his stewardship, not that it was time already. The accusers of the steward had made their case, but the master needed to hear from the horses mouth, if the accusations were founded or not.
Like the rest of us, our accusers are many, for our numerous sins and wasteful use of the multiple opportunities we had to do good; but thank goodness, our judge is One, God himself. With God, there is always room for each person to make his/her own defense, to try to right his/her wrongs prior to judgment day. Like every court proceedings, lawyers and witnesses are needed, especially in a criminal trial. For you and me, like the astute steward, before judgment day, charity is the wager – recipients of our kindness and debt cancellation will speak up in our favor, and God, just like the Master in the parable who concentrated exclusively on the good done by the astute servant, so will he accord us his mercy. You know, sainthood, to which we are all called, is about the acknowledgement of having been forgiven many times over, and extending the same to others – fellow sinners – on the path to eternal salvation.
The “astuteness” of the steward is his REPENTANCE – the ability to see that human beings must be helped NOT exploited! The accusation of “wastefulness” of his master’s resources did not ask why the resources were available in the first place. Clearly, those resources were there for human beings, not human beings for resources – they must be used for human salvation, not human damnation. The prodigality of the father with a wasteful son, last Sunday, teaches us how prodigal God is when it comes to the salvation of souls – he wastes and squanders resources for human salvation – he continues the same thing in today’s gospel even towards a wasteful steward. Indeed, God did not spare the life of his only begotten Son in his quest for human salvation: how more wasteful couldn’t he be to save you and me? The statement of Paul, “God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth,” in our second reading, says it all. There is no price God is unwilling to pay for human salvation. Even an apparently dishonest maneuver, by a steward, is being praised in the gospel because of its potential for human salvation.
What is the use of my intelligence and knowledge – for killing souls or saving souls? Do I join Jesus Christ in his crusade for the salvation of souls, since that is what God wants or do I side with exploiters of whom Amos says God will surely avenge himself (Amos 8:7)? But the option is opened to you and me, to become astute in our dealings with God and one another. The question is not how, but when. When are you going to start being astute for your salvation? The “how” of salvation is God’s business not yours and mine. The “when” of salvation is the question we must all answer right away – it is now! Charity is our ladder to heaven, let’s start giving now – whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me/God!
Assignment for the Week:
Prepare a chart on how to avoid sin and occasion(s) of sin this week.