Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 40
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost.
The Unjust Steward.
"Make unto you friends of the Mammon of iniquity that when you shall fail they may receive you into everlasting dwellings." — Luke xvi. 9.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex.: I. Difficulty of parable. II. Israelites and Rebecca. III. Four principles.
I. His unconcern: 1. Sense of ownership. 2. All are stewards. 3. No thought of morrow.
II. His sudden call : 1. Informers. 2. Warning unheeded. 3. Death of worldling.
III. His device : 1. Effort, temporal and spiritual. 2. Master's praise. 3. Wisdom, earthly, heavenly.
Per. : Parable of St. John Damascene.
SERMON.
Brethren, more than one eminent interpreter of the Scriptures has been forced to confess that of all the parables of Our Lord this one of the unjust steward offers the gravest difficulties. Even the profoundly erudite Cajetan gave it up in despair, and to the great Cardinal commentator, you know, every theologian carries his doubts and perplexities. The chief fault to be found with the many ingenious or false or absurd explanations proposed is, that they try to evolve more meaning out of Our Lord's words than their Author intended them to convey. In their eagerness to establish a perfect similitude, they make all parallel impossible, for from the fact, for instance, that his master commended the unjust steward, it cannot be concluded that God could ever approve of knavery or dishonesty. Somewhat similiar difficulties are encountered in God's approval of the despoilment of the Egyptians by the Israelites on the eve of their exodus, and in His tacit acquiescence in Rebecca's trick, whereby Esau lost and Jacob gained the paternal blessing and the rights of primogeniture. These and such like scriptural problems take on a simpler aspect when we remember, first, that God, being absolute Lord of all that is, can transfer temporal possessions from one to another without breach of the seventh commandment; secondly, that earthly goods are in the sight of God of little account—of no account, in fact, except in so far as they serve to promote such heavenly interests as the deliverance of His peoples from the bondage of sin, or their introduction into everlasting dwellings in His celestial land of promise; thirdly, that, as the words of Scripture have a twofold meaning, the literal and the spiritual, a passage which on its surface rehearses the violation of some virtue such as justice or truthfulness will, on closer inspection, be found to contain a hidden, spiritual sense wherein these or some other virtues are inculcated or extolled. Thus, deceitful Jacob is but a figure of the merciful Redeemer, who, covering Himself with our nature and our sins, impersonated us before His heavenly Father to obtain His forgiveness and His blessing. Finally, that no perfect parallel can ever be drawn between man and God, between earth and heaven, and the respective conditions of each. With these principles in mind we will readily see that the lesson of the parable is a very simple one indeed, that in the unjust steward's false sense of security and sudden embarrassment and cunning method of providing for the future, Our Lord teaches us to employ in gaining heaven by means of our temporal possessions, if not greater, at least as great prudence as is exhibited by worldlings in their provision for the day of adversity or for their declining years. For the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.
First of all, then, we have to consider the utter lack of solicitude which characterized the unfaithful steward. His rich master, trusting him implicitly, had left the administration of the estate so entirely in his hands that the sense of stewardship had gradually given way to a proprietary feeling. How true that is to Nature I You have noticed, no doubt, with what easy carelessness bank cashiers and managers of large concerns handle immense sums of money, and from the sad details of court proceedings all of us have learned how easily conscience becomes blunted with usage and how often the coin sticks to the fingers through which it passes. An Italian proverb has it that no great river was ever yet without its muddy water. Nor is this true alone of the business world; it is verified also in the greater universe of men and things. The Lord's is the earth and the fulness thereof, and men are but the managers of His vast estate. The world is like a great and beautiful mansion, with its lofty blue ceilings and its brilliant lights and its carpets of velvety green and its vast tables loaded with rich viands and fruits and garnished with flowers, and over all this mart presides. In all the world there is not one, no not even the humblest and the poorest, to whose care God has not allotted some portion of His wealth. The rich administer His larger interests, humanly speaking, but the poor also have intrusted to them a life in comparison with which the whole earth is valueless, a soul for which ten thousand worlds would be an inadequate exchange, and time — the golden key to the treasuries of heaven. In the order of grace, too, our stewardship includes the gifts of the true faith, the sacrifice and the sacraments of our Church, the communion of God's saints, and the infinite merits of our Redeemer. But both in the order of Nature and of grace we easily forget that we are stewards, and we soon begin to waste by selfish extravagance or neglect our Master's goods. The rich feel, or at least they act, as though they were absolute lords of all they possess, for, while Lazarus is being hunted from the door, Dives, in purple and fine linen, is feasting sumptuously. And yet Dives's superfluous wealth belongs by right to the Lord and to the poor with whom Christ identified Himself when He said: " Amen, I say to you, as long as you did not charity nor justice to these, My least brethren, neither did you them to Me." Nor is the stewardship of the poor over their eternal interests always above reproach, though, truth to say, they are generally the more faithful, for man's fidelity to God is usually in inverse ratio to God's liberality to man. The old saying: That one of the surest ways of making a man your enemy is to load him with favors, is oftenest verified in the relations between man and God, There are exceptions, of course — Pharao sometimes finds a faithful Joseph — but none the less they are the exceptions. And howsoever great his dishonesty, howsoever complicated his accounts, each is firmly persuaded that the day of reckoning is afar off. Others may see ruin closing in around us; we can see it in the case of others; but as for ourselves, we are serenely confident. The sailors on Jonas's straining ship are all bustle and confusion, but Jonas, the one person most concerned, is fast asleep. By and by, says the unjust steward, I will cease from pilfering, and later on I will make restitution. In my will, says Plutus, I will remember the different charities, but I am not ready just yet to sign a will. There is no hurry, says the sinner, to-morrow, perhaps, I will arise and go to my Father, and if not to-morrow, at the last surely. To the last, says Wisdom itself, they shall be marrying and giving in marriage, and Dives shall be confidently planning for his future on earth with not a thought of heaven, even while the Lord is at his very door to demand his soul of him.
Brethren, the second point worthy of notice is the steward's dreadful plight when suddenly called to account. Sooner or later every David meets his Nathan. " Your sin," says Holy Writ, " will find you out." Doubtless the steward had been severe with those under him, and now these detect his dishonesty and in return hasten to inform their lord. A man may for a time appear to succeed in serving both God and Mammon, but eventually his duplicity will be exposed. God's angels, good and bad, have continually the freedom of His audience chamber; aye, and virtuous heathens and heretics, as Christ said, shall rise in judgment against us; and you know that such sins as oppression of the poor and defrauding the laborer of his wages cry for vengeance to the Lord God of Sabaoth. Oh! the shame and the misery of the defaulter brought to bay! What wonder that it incites to murder, or impels to madness or self-destruction! But more dreadful still is it to fall unprepared into the hands of the living God. Notice well his master's words to the steward: "What is this I hear of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for now thou canst be steward no longer." He does not demand the account then and there, but bids him go and prepare and then present his statement. Nor is our God less merciful. No man ever yet died without having at some time or other received sufficient warning, and hence the guilt of unpreparedness is all the greater. In the nature of things the lightning should precede the thunder, but the good God has so arranged things that we hear the rumbling of the coming storm before the lightning strikes. The Lord has said, indeed, that He will come as comes a thief in the night, but how many times and in how many ways does He warn us that thieves are constantly abroad, and that His faithful and true servant should be ever on the watch! And oh! the dreadful consequences of allowing the warning to go unheeded! Saul was a mighty man and valiant, but when the ghost of Samuel said to him: " To-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me," he fell lifeless from very terror. Brethren, each one of us, if we fare no worse, shall one day hear from the lips of a physician or of a priest these fated words: " Your case is hopeless, you must prepare to die; you must prepare to give an account of your stewardship, for now you can be steward no longer." Let not your comfortable circumstances lead you to bid your soul eat, drink, and make merry, for that long years of enjoyment are before you, for this very night God may demand your soul of you, and whose, then, will be all these things you have provided? Let not your youth and strength persuade you that length of days is sure to be your lot, for very often death acts as did Jacob when, in blessing Joseph's sons, he, contrary to all expectations, crossed his hands and placed his right on the younger and on the older his left. Let no sense of self-righteousness make you overconfident in your final perseverance, for who would have dreamt that Judas's place in heaven was destined to be occupied by a crucified thief? When our summons comes, our uppermost thought may be that of the unjust steward: "What shall I do? What shall I do?" Notice well the contrast between the steward's dilemma and that of Dives. Each thinks within himself: "What shall I do?" but one is embarrassed with riches, the other is face to face with ruin; one concludes to store up much goods for many years, the other determines to distribute even his master's wealth among the poor; and the Lord, you know, commended the unjust steward, but Dives was buried in hell. A soul that has been more active in hoarding up perishable treasure on earth than in heaping up everlasting treasure in heaven, hears death's announcement with somewhat of the awful anxiety and terror with which the wicked shall start at the sound of Gabriel's trumpet. In an instant it finds itself shorn of all its earthly possessions and exposed, poor and naked and miserable, alike to the helpless pity of its friends, men and angels, and to the ridicule of its enemies, the devils. The wretched plight of David's ambassadors when King Hanon shaved half of their heads and one side of their faces and cut away their nether garments and sent them away, is an eloquent picture of the utter confusion of an unjust steward of God when suddenly called upon by his Master to render an account, for that now he can be steward no longer. " What shall I do? " he says. " What shall I do? To dig I am unable, for for me the time for acquiring merit has closed forever; and to beg I am ashamed, for how can I, unmerciful as I have been, hope to obtain mercy? What shall I do? What shall I do? "
Brethren, consider thirdly the steward's device, thought out in the few moments yet available, and whereby he hoped to provide for his future. While in favor with his lord he had doubtless dealt severely with his master's tenantry, but now that he can be steward no longer he hastens to curry favor with those he had formerly oppressed. What an amount of thought he must have crowded into those few moments, and how typical it all is of the deep study that should characterize our provision for our future beyond the grave! All too seldom in this regard do we pause to ask ourselves the question: " What shall I do? " Had we ahead of us a very searching competitive examination for some coveted position, or for a title, or for a purse of gold, what labor we would undergo, how all-absorbed in study would we be, and oh! the anxious days and the sleepless nights until the contest had taken place and the decision become known! See with what care the defendant, whose life or perhaps some lesser interest is at stake, collects his facts and witnesses, prepares his case, argues and cajoles and, it may be, bribes the jury or his opponent's witnesses, and altogether moves heaven and earth to gain a favorable verdict! All this and much more will men do and endure to obtain an empty corruptible crown, or to avert a temporary disgrace or misfortune or punishment, and thus the children of this world prove wiser in their generation than the children of light. For, alas! when there is question of our spiritual interests we rarely can arrive at any correct or practical conclusion. Christ has said that whoever wishes to be His disciple must deny himself, and that whoever would be perfect must give up all to the poor and coming follow Him; but with all that precept and example before us we yet cannot bring ourselves to say definitely with the steward: "I know what I shall do." But he calling together every one of his lord's debtors, and producing in haste their notes of hand, ordered them to so alter the bonds that the debt of the first was reduced by one-half, that of the second by one-fifth, and so on with the others according as he expected from each more or less kindness when he failed. And his master, we are told, commended his action for that he had done wisely. Herein consists the crux of the parable's difficulty. We may say that the steward had not yet been deposed; that he was steward still and acted strictly within his right in trying to undo some of his past oppression, but none the less humanly speaking his proceeding was dishonest and practically forgery. Yet in the purely human aspect of the case may we not find some sort of justification for him? You remember the parable of the unmerciful servant who, though his master had forgiven him all his debts, was still unwilling to forego his claims against his fellow servant and was consequently sold into slavery until he had paid the last farthing. And, as mercy's rule works both ways, should not the steward be forgiven now in consideration of his willingness to forgive others? But, you say, he is robbing Peter to recompense Paul! Well, recollect that we are dealing with a parable, and that it is necessary to strain human conditions to bring them into parallel with the divine. The steward did wisely, because the foolishness of this world is wisdom with God, and the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. To store up riches or to scatter them among the poor will appear to us to be folly or wisdom, according as our point of view is material or spiritual, and a special fickleness and inconsistency must ever characterize the judgment of those who are trying the impossible task of serving both God and Mammon. John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking and men said: " He hath a devil." Christ came eating and drinking and they called Him a glutton — these servers of the two masters. Like the children in the market-place, they are piped to and they will not dance, they are mourned with and they will not weep. Thus is wisdom done justice to by all her children — by contrast, viz., with the folly of the slaves of Mammon and the inconsistency of the servants of the two masters, and directly, in .the consistency of the lives of her own, the servants of God, the children of light. For these last hold the world at its true worth. They are deeply imbued with the responsibilities of their stewardship, and seeing things with the eyes of God, they value and use the things of earth for their one legitimate object, the glory of God and the spiritual betterment of themselves and of their neighbors. It is thus that the Mammon of iniquity can and should be employed to secure for ourselves friends here and hereafter. Even as Jacob sent ahead rich presents to appease the wrath of his brother Esau, so should we devote our earthly possessions to the enrichment of heaven with souls saved, that when our own time shall have come they may receive us into everlasting dwellings.
Brethren, St. John Damascene in his history of Barlaam and Josaphat gives us a parable which has all the point of that of the unjust steward, with none of its difficulties. Among a certain people, he says, the law is that each year they shall kidnap some foreigner, totally ignorant of their customs, and that they shall invest him with all the powers of royalty, but that, the year being ended, they shall banish him to a desert island. But occasionally it happens that the king chooses his advisers so wisely and wins them so thoroughly that they inform him of his coming fate, whereupon he quietly sets about converting the barren island into such an earthly paradise that the sweetness of his exile exceeds the delights of kingship. Brethren, God has placed us in this world for a year, for a day, and He has made us stewards, aye kings, of His creation, and by the added gift of the true faith He has made us to be the children of light. Let us beware how we conduct our affairs; let us be careful to which counsellors, the world or God, we give ear; let us remember our term of office is brief and ever drawing to a close; let us make to ourselves friends of the Mammon of iniquity, that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting dwellings.