Most people, even great biblical scholars, find it hard to understand today’s Gospel (Luke16:1-13) where Jesus seems to praise the steward who fiddled the books in order to make a future for himself. You can hear and see me give this Homily on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wH-tHTekaU
Indeed, many priests take the easy option and use the shorter Gospel that leaves that story out. But I never take the easy option. So here goes!
I think the first thing to remember is that Jesus constantly stressed in his teaching and his life that there is no such thing as a perfect human being; and that trying to say that some people are good and some people are bad is a grave mistake. So when he tells this story of the man we call “the unjust steward”, he is again challenging this notion. In fact, those who first heard this story would not have been surprised at what this steward was up to, because that was what all stewards did. They would have simply been amused that the man went so far in his dirty dealing that he was found out, and even more amused at the final fiddle he gets involved with to secure his future. In one sense, the story is just one big joke, and not to be taken seriously.
But like all good jokes, there is a message to be learnt. First, that we do indeed all live in an imperfect world. Some religious people have tried various ways to cut themselves off from the world’s imperfections. I’m about to visit the site of a Carthusian Monastery in North Yorkshire and see the remains of the individual cells – little rooms – where each monk spent all his time completely cut off from the normal temptations that would otherwise have been around them. Of course it’s a nonsense, because they relied on people living in the world to provide them with their daily meals, delivered to them through things like serving hatches; and anyway we all know, as Jesus once said, (Matt 15:1-20) that evil thoughts basically come from deep inside us, and blaming any such thoughts on outside influences misses the point. What Jesus wants us to do, is to face up to our own failings, rather than pretending that we haven’t got any, and blaming others.
So when the master praises the steward, he is not praising him for being unjust, but for the way he copes in an unjust situation, in a fallen world. Different translations choose different English words to describe this approach to things. “Astute” yes, but sometimes “shrewd” or “prudent”. Whatever the word used, the attitude being encouraged is similar to what Jesus says to his disciples in another place, (Matt 10:16) “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” In other words, we Christians are called to live and function in an imperfect world. This means for example that when some scammer tries to diddle us out of our money, we are not meant to be dopes and let it happen. Oh no, for as Jesus says later in our Gospel, we are meant to “Use money, tainted as it is. We are not meant to be stupid. It also means on a much larger scale, that if we are Ukrainians Christians and believe that in a perfect world violence and war is always wrong, and consider such things a great tragedy, we may still decide to be involved in it.
Now if we move on to the 2nd Reading, (1 Tim 2:1-8) which seems very appropriate as the Queen lies in State before her funeral, we need to keep all this in mind. The “Kings and others in authority” at the time when that Letter was written - the ones we’re urged to pray for there – were very different from Queen Elizabeth, for they were definitely not good people. In fact, many if not all of them were very bad people, oppressing those they had power over, and killing anyone who got in their way. Yet Christians are told to pray for them. Now part of the reason for doing this, was because the writer wanted his listeners to be like the unjust steward, he wants them to be “astute”, so that those people in authority would be less likely to kill them. But the other reason for praying for them, as for anyone else who has died, was simply to be realistic about them. In fact you might say that being realistic about our fellow humans, dead or alive, is another way of being astute.
We Christians are not mean to pretend that when someone dies they are perfect in the sight of God, and destined for automatic immortality. St Paul makes it quite clear when he writes to the Romans (3:23-24) “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Each one of us, in one way or another, is unjust; and each of us needs to be made just – to be justified by God’s grace and not by our own actions. That is why all Requiem Masses ask God that the person who has died may have their sins wiped away, and this applies to everyone, even Queen Elizabeth. It is why when Catholics pray for the dead, especially when faced with a dead body laid in a coffin in front to them, we make the sign of the cross. What we are doing is placing the departed, whoever they are, into the hands of our loving Saviour, who died for all men and women, high or low, rich or poor, quite good or very bad or somewhere in between. I have been moved to watch the crowds passing through Westminster Hall to view the Lying in State. I have seen some bow or curtsey, but what moved me most is when someone stops, and makes the sign of the cross. Most people die, unless they are very stupid, knowing that although they may have done many good things of which they are rightly proud, they also made mistakes. That is to be astute about oneself; and I have the feeling that Queen Elizabeth was like that. We commend her, and all the departed into your hands Lord Jesus.
Here is one of the prayers from the Funeral Mass. O God, you are mercy for sinners and the happiness of your saints, give to your servant Queen Elizabeth a share with your chosen ones in the blessedness you give, so that on the day of resurrection, freed from the bonds of mortality, she may come before your face. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen
Eternal rest, grant to her O Lord, And let Perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.
May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, Through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
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