📖 Homily Today

Shrewd for Heaven: Citizens Who Live Like It

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today's Gospel has puzzled readers for two thousand years. A steward is caught wasting his master's property. Facing dismissal, he calls in his master's debtors and slashes their bills, hoping they will welcome him later. And then, astonishingly, the master commends him.

Is Jesus praising dishonesty? Not at all. Notice what the master commends: not the steward's ethics, but his prudence. He acted decisively. He read the moment, saw his future clearly, and used what was in his hands to prepare for it. Then Jesus adds the line that stings: "the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light."

My friends, think about how much energy people pour into worldly goals. We plan retirements, research purchases, guard our careers, and calculate every advantage. Such cleverness is not wrong in itself. But Jesus asks a searching question: do we bring even half that seriousness to our eternal future?

Saint Augustine put it simply when reflecting on this parable: the steward was praised because he provided for the future. If a man can be so careful for a life that ends, Augustine says, how much more should we provide for the life that never ends?

Saint Paul gives us the other half of the picture in the first reading. He weeps over those whose "God is their stomach," whose "minds are occupied with earthly things." Then he lifts our eyes: "our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." He will "change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body."

Here is the heart of it, dear friends. We are citizens of heaven living for a while in this world. We are not owners here; we are stewards. Our time, our money, our talents, our relationships are entrusted to us. The Catechism reminds us that the goods of creation are destined for the whole human race, and that we will give an account of how we used them.

So what does heavenly shrewdness look like on an ordinary weekday? It looks like the steward's quick thinking turned toward love. He used money to make friends; we can use our resources to make friends of the poor. Jesus says in the very next verse, "make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." Generosity is the shrewdest investment there is.

It looks like reconciling quickly, as the steward settled accounts quickly. Is there a debt of forgiveness someone owes you, or you owe them? Cancel it today. It looks like making time for prayer with the same determination we give to our schedules. And it looks like returning to confession, settling our accounts with a Master whose mercy is far greater than any earthly one.

And here is the good news: we do not have to make this journey on our own strength. Paul says Christ will transform us "by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself." Transformation is His work, and we only cooperate.

In a few moments, that transformation continues at this altar. In the Eucharist, the glorified Body of Christ, the very body Paul says ours will one day resemble, is given to us as food. Every Holy Communion is a foretaste of our true homeland, a passport stamped for heaven.

So let me leave you with one question for today: where can I be as shrewd for heaven as I am for this world? Choose one concrete act of generosity, forgiveness, or prayer before the day ends. Then, as Paul urges, "stand firm in the Lord, beloved." Our true home is waiting. Amen.

Sources Consulted - New American Bible, Revised Edition (USCCB): Philippians 3:17–4:1; Luke 16:1-8, with notes - St. Augustine, *Sermon 359A* (on the unjust steward) - St. Thomas Aquinas, *Catena Aurea* on Luke 16 - *Catechism of the Catholic Church*, §§2402–2407, 1003, 2443–2449 - Pope Benedict XVI, *Jesus of Nazareth*, Vol. 1 (on the parable of the unjust steward) - Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament (commentary on Luke and Philippians) - Word on Fire / Bishop Robert Barron, reflections on Luke 16 - USCCB Daily Reflections, Thursday/Friday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time