GOSPEL RFELECTION, FRIDAY, 31ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 7 NOVEMBER 2025

Luke 16:1-8.  In a lengthy portion of Luke’s gospel Jesus taught mostly by parables, addressed to the crowds, or the twelve disciples alone, or both together.  Today’s gospel  is not easy to interpret.  It tells us of a number of rogues.  A rich man’s manager-steward squanders his master’s money; calling each of his master’s debtors he falsified their debts so that he profited from them; the master himself, instead of being shocked by what was going on, actually praised the steward for what he had done.  What are we to make of this?  Luke himself actually supplies at least four different interpretations.  (1)  If Christians (the children of light) were as shrewd and ingenious, they would be much better people.  Huh?  (2) Possessing wealth is not in itself a sin, but they ARE a great responsibility.  (3)  The best way of to be proved worthy of a bigger task is to perform a small one well.  (4)  Nobody can have two masters and serve both faithfully and well. 

However, Jesus praises those who are more prudent, trustworthy, and faithful four times in this parable, in case we have missed that.  Our eye goes to the evildoing first, so we have to pay attention to the whole text in order to see what Jesus was teaching.  Parables thrive on contradictory images and images capable of multiple meanings.  We cannot just hear or read them, we have to take them into our thought and prayer so that what Jesus taught can become visible, so that we can incorporate their teaching into our lives.