25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel Bullet Points (Luke 16:1-13)

• A trusted servant is summoned, and his job is terminated because he has not dealt well with the master’s property. He realized that his future would be bad. Astute as he was, he pushed some deals with his fellow servants, telling them to consider their debt officially much less. He expected that his fellow servants would, in turn, remember him in the days ahead. The master, upon finding this out, commended the trickery of the servant.

• Jesus is not endorsing any form of financial cheating, or any cheating, for that matter. Rather, he commends taking advantage of life’s opportunities to manage our lives well and all of His gifts to us. The parable exhorts us to be as shrewd in gaining favor with God as the unjust steward was in gaining favor with the master’s debtors.

• The reading concludes simply: “You cannot serve both God and mammon” (Jn 13). No man can serve two masters. One’s loyalty must be undivided. A person cannot lead a virtuous life if he is greedy. Jesus is urging us not to put our own agenda above His.