The rich man we hear of in today’s Gospel had gone off to enjoy life and left his property in the capable hands of one of his stewards. Everything was well for some time but then the steward got lazy and wasted a lot of his time enjoying life too. To facilitate this, he took advantage of his position and began to appropriate some of the master’s money coming in from the tenants for his own personal use.

Eventually the rich man returns home, asks him to give an account of his stewardship and discovers what’s been going on. He immediately sets about dismissing the steward. Realising what was about to happen to him and declaring that he was no good for digging or begging he decides to ingratiate himself with the master’s debtors by writing down the value of the debt they owed to the Master. They were all vulnerable and so they took the opportunity to pay back considerably less than they owed even though they knew the steward had no authority and was being dishonest with the master’s money.

It seems strange that Jesus would use an example of dishonesty to illustrate his message, yet he says we could learn something from the dishonest steward. The steward in today’s story used all his resources to secure his future.  As children of light we are challenged to have that same dedication and use all our blessings, our time, talents and health – wisely and justly so that we can all give a good account of our stewardship when we are asked by God.

Fr. Gerry