Honest administrators – at various levels – and our everyone’s Home

(Lk 16:9-15)

'Ultimately,' says Jesus, 'you must decide: "You cannot serve both God and mammon" (Lk 16:13). Mammon is a term of Phoenician origin that evokes economic security and success in business; we could say that wealth is the idol to which everything is sacrificed in order to achieve material success, and thus this economic success becomes a person's true god. A fundamental decision is therefore necessary" [Pope Benedict, homily in Velletri, 23 September 2007].

"Whoever is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and whoever is unjust in a very little thing is unjust also in much" (Lk 16:10).

The church leader who was "caught" taking advantage of the community's assets (vv. 1-8) knew how to make grand speeches - perhaps instrumental ones - about the need for solidarity, but he did not live out concrete fraternity.

Here, then, is a catechesis from Luke on faithfulness in small and great things: a very timely teaching. Even today, in fact, there is no shortage of leaders who make grand proclamations... which are widely heard, but only to give themselves an air of importance.

Providing concrete help and risking one's life - putting one hand on one's conscience and the other in one's wallet - remains, unfortunately, a difficult and rare thing.

Many find nothing better than to turn their heads away and dodge the issue, delegating blame and responsibility to 'the system', to the current crisis, etc. - not without concrete reasons or grounds.

Instead, as Pope Francis' social encyclical emphasises, a more just world is a 'laborious, artisanal' work (FT n.217).

'And I say to you, make friends for yourselves with the unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal tents.

Whoever is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and whoever is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

If then you have not been faithful with the unjust mammon, who will entrust you with the true [wealth]?

And if you have not been faithful with the [wealth] of others, who will give you your own?" (Lk 16:9-12).

In the evangelist's intention, the particular story alluded to in the preceding verses was intended to serve as a concrete example for his small communities on the use of material goods.

After a mistake that even leaders can make, even unrighteous wealth can be put to good use for the benefit of all - to create on earth that climate of serene vitality that is indestructible, which is a trait and attribute of the divine condition.

In the authentic Church, the poor—oppressed, degraded, impoverished and made destitute by a competitive society—find esteem, hope and a will to live, with the simple help of brothers and sisters who are equally needy.

In fact, all communities originally arose among the destitute. Little by little, the wealthy also began to appear.

It seemed like a great opening to God's future; instead, as time passed, there was a growing insensitivity and closed-heartedness among the new wealthy classes and in the churches.

The entry of the rich – initially well regarded – brought many problems over time, including the internal management of collective resources.

Common goods sometimes became the exclusive preserve of leaders who seemed to no longer have clear ideas about the social role of money.

The early Christians understood that faith in the resurrection is incompatible with attachment to the ephemeral. But it was a risky condition.

In this regard, the indirect testimony of Lucian of Samosata (125-192), author of satires against superstition and credulity, which also included Christianity, is significant.

In light-hearted language, he describes in 'The Death of Peregrine' [De morte Peregrini, 13] the impact that faith had on the lives of Christians of his time, and with unconventional firmness:

'Their first lawgiver persuades them that they are all brothers to one another, and as they convert, renouncing the Greek gods, they worship that wise crucified man and live according to his laws. For this reason, they despise all possessions equally and believe them to be common, and they do not care for them when they have them. Therefore, if a shrewd impostor arose among them who knew how to manipulate them, he would immediately become rich, mocking these gullible and foolish people."

The liberation from the idols of private property that Jesus proposed stimulated even the most agile and established souls to appreciate the transformation of property in relation to the lives and possibilities of others.

Obviously, in order to introduce this model of sharing and encounter the outside world, the choice had to start close to home: one could not oppress sisters and brothers of faith and preach justice to the world.

Emancipation begins in the small sphere of one's own family, acquaintances and friends; in the small change of internal and daily relationships.

The fact is that God and money give opposite orders. One distracts the other.

So sooner or later, even those motivated by good intentions can come to despise the Father, the Communion, the ideals lived even in summary - and become attached to trivial shortcuts.

The official religious leaders, all united in defending the lavish earnings secured by the ancient world - which they (greedily) upheld with drawn swords - honoured the Eternal One in signs, but... gave in to temptation.

Now deprived of both fundamental and detailed choices, the leaders laughed behind Jesus' back, plotting secretly and in concert. Even today, unfortunately, they treat him as a naive dreamer (vv. 14-15).

Yet the Master continues to shout himself hoarse, so that we too may enter into his new 'proactive' economy [as the bishops of South Africa and the recent social encyclical might define it].

An economy of gratuitousness that does not impoverish - for the 'greatest possible wealth' that extinguishes the 'desire to dominate' but makes us 'be together as human beings' (FT n.229).

Here the small becomes significant. The challenge is open.

To internalise and live the message:

Are you generically supportive or... fraternal in conquibus?

Have you experienced the gift that does not impoverish but enriches?

In the ecclesial sphere, have you felt deprived or, on the contrary, humanised?