25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle C

Luke 16:1-13 

“What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?” (Luke 16:3) 

The steward in Jesus’ parable, who cleverly makes the best of his distressing situation, expends all his energy on taking matters into his own hands and neglects to realize it’s by coming to the Father with nothing that his grace and mercy can be received most freely.  

This dishonest steward was face to face with his loss—a loss prompted by his own choices.  And while the steward is commended for using his wit to save whatever pieces of his life that he could, his immediate response was pride.  It's his pride that asks what he can do, when perhaps his cry instead needs to be “What can my master do for me?”  

I'm reminded of the contrast of means presented by a different parable, that of the Prodigal Son.  In that parable, we catch a glimpse of another broken soul, yet this soul acknowledged the depth of his brokenness and emptiness and responded in a spirit of surrender.  How the steward’s circumstances might have turned out differently if, like the Prodigal Son, he had approached the master with absolutely nothing left, with hands empty, with the ultimate spirit of poverty and asked for mercy.  

Rather than resting in the loving arms of our Father, we tend to take the road of self-dependency, living under the illusion that by working things out on our own our lives will turn out for the better.  What a great deal we lose when, even if we should find ourselves in the midst of brokenness and sin, we turn our face away from Jesus and try to remedy the situation ourselves.  Who among us has gained by doing that?   

As I was praying with this passage, I was reminded of the danger of idols.  It’s a fruitful thought to remind ourselves that idols are not just things but can also be mindsets.  The idols fed by the steward were self-sufficiency and pride.  The Father longs for us to let go of those idols, coming to Him instead in our humility and need.  Strength and control are not what draws Him so closely to us; He is near to the brokenhearted and poor in spirit—let that be who we are.