Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

“Mammon”
by George Fredrick Watts, 1884-85

Readings for Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
Readings and Commentary: [3]
 
Reading 1: Romans 15:14-21
 
I myself am convinced about you, my brothers and sisters,
that you yourselves are full of goodness,
filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another.
But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you,
because of the grace given me by God
to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles
in performing the priestly service of the Gospel of God,
so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable,
sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast in what pertains to God.
For I will not dare to speak of anything
except what Christ has accomplished through me
to lead the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed,
by the power of signs and wonders,
by the power of the Spirit of God,
so that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum
I have finished preaching the Gospel of Christ.
Thus I aspire to proclaim the Gospel
not where Christ has already been named,
so that I do not build on another’s foundation,
but as it is written:
 
Those who have never been told of him shall see,
and those who have never heard of him shall understand.
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Commentary on Rom 15:14-21
 
This passage begins the conclusion to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. He starts by reiterating his faith in the members of the community, that they have faithfully received the Gospel he preaches and are able to apply it to one another appropriately. He continues by establishing his own Christ-given authority to bring the Gentiles to faith in the Lord, into full communion with the whole of the faithful.  St. Paul also states once more that what he has taught to the Gentiles he has received from Christ, and the same message has been proclaimed throughout his travels.
 
He concludes the selection by quoting Isaiah 52:15 which “concerns the Servant of the Lord. According to Isaiah, the Servant is first of all Israel, which was to bring the knowledge of Yahweh to the nations. In Romans 9-11 Paul showed how Israel failed in this mission. Therefore, he himself undertakes almost singlehandedly Israel's responsibility as the Servant and moves as quickly as possible with the gospel through the Roman Empire.” [4]
 
CCC: Rom 12-15 1454, 1971; Rom 15:16 1070; Rom 15:19 693
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4
 
R. (see 2b) The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
 
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
 
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
 
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
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Commentary on Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4
 
Psalm 98 is a song of praise and thanksgiving. We see, in this selection, how God is praised for the strength he lends his people, and the salvation he brings to those who are faithful. It is also a song of victory that is attributed to the Lord, and one of awe for the deeds he has done on behalf of his people. We can relate the victory to the unblemished creation of the Blessed Mother.
 
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Gospel: Luke 16:1-8
 
Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward
who was reported to him for squandering his property.
He summoned him and said,
‘What is this I hear about you?
Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.’
The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do,
now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’
He called in his master’s debtors one by one.
To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.
Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’
Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’ 
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note;
write one for eighty.’
And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.
For the children of this world
are more prudent in dealing with their own generation
than the children of light.”
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Commentary on Lk 16:1-8
 
“The parable of the Unrighteous Steward is about urgency and preparedness.  About to lose his position (16:2), the steward makes use of a pressing situation to find favor with his master’s debtors and prepare for his future (16:4). Christians should take even greater care to prepare for life in the world to come. Mystically (St. Gaudentius, Sermo 18): the unrighteous steward signifies the devil, whose domination over the world is nearing its end. Having wasted the Lord’s goods by stripping us of divine grace and friendship, he now works anxiously to make friends by deception and empty promises of forgiveness. While his ardor and foresight are worthy of imitation, his wicked and dishonest tactics are not.”[5]
 
The common practice at the time this parable was told was for the steward to receive interest or commission on the amounts owed to their masters. Therefore, in this account, when the dishonest steward reduces the amount owed to his master, he is really just retrieving the actual amount owed, foregoing his own extravagant interest, hence the master’s praise. (Given that the steward was being dismissed, this “praise” was provided as an ironic statement to emphasize the lesson or logion.) The moral taught by this story is that we are to be prudent with material wealth accumulated through the use of God’s gifts. Avoiding greed, to which wealth can easily lead, will establish the person in a positive light in the next stage of existence.
 
Given the juxtaposition of “children of this world” and “children of light,” we also see a moral contrast implying a rather Pauline thought, that we may be viewed as foolish in our love for one another as we do not deal shrewdly with others, but act out of fairness, even charity.
 
CCC: Lk 16:1 952; Lk 16:3 952
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Reflection:
 
We cannot understate the impact of the moral of the Gospel parable about the dishonest steward.  There is actually a sort of double warning related by St. Luke.  First, avoid greed, it will lead to utter destruction (ask Bernard Madoff and his family).  Greed, both corporate and individual, has been at the bottom of most of the major atrocities that man has committed against man in the recent past.  Greed fueled the war in Afghanistan (the major source of most of the world’s heroin supply is likely a driver that motivates the Islamic extremists).  It was certainly responsible for the “great recession.”
 
Greed and the temptation to amass personal wealth has caused health care costs to be inflated as insurers attempt to maximize their profits at the expense of those who are ill, and greed is the biggest contributor to the global environmental crisis, as we look at those who seek to grab big profits by denuding forests, over-fishing the waters, and dumping wastes without the expensive precautions needed.
 
Perhaps the worst part of greed is that it tempts the poor and the rich alike.  When we start pointing fingers at those who have profited excessively, we need to look at how they were able to profit.  Was it not meeting the demands of those who did not think of themselves as greedy?  Did Bernard Madoff become wealthy without individuals who thought they could become wealthy themselves?  When we look at what we buy or what we acquire, do we stop to think where it came from or who may have suffered to bring it to us?
 
The Christian is called to form a clear understanding of conservancy, of all of the resources God has provided (please take the time to read Laudato Si’).  What the Lord calls our attention to is not that it is bad to use our God-given gifts to prosper in the world, but if we are to stand before the Just Judge on the last day, we had better have been very cautious in our dealings with the secular world, knowing that what we do on a daily basis must be for God’s greater glory and not our own.
 
Pax

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[1] The picture used today is “Mammon” by George Fredrick Watts, 1884-85.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio
[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] NAB footnote on Romans 15:21.
[5] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Old and New Testament (Ignatius Press, © 2024, San Francisco, CA.), 1863.