6th NOVEMBER FRIDAY IN 31st WEEK ORDINARY TIME

1st Reading: Rom 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 God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to 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.

Gospel: Lk 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 commanded 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.

REFLECTIONS AND MEDITATIONS ON THE READINGS

"The parable of the Dishonest Steward."

There is a story about a man who bought a parrot. He taught the bird to say one word and the word was, "  Today." When he got up in the morning and when he came home at night the bird always reminds him:  " Today." There was no procrastination around that bird. "Today, today, today," it screamed.

Moreover, about six months later, the man bought another parrot. He taught that bird to say one word and the word was " Tomorrow." He said, " I have been living as if there were no future. Today is all there is, and I have found it is not so." The two birds together helped him keep his mind on the realities of life: today and tomorrow.

From our gospel reading today, the steward could have heard both voices of the two parrots. Tomorrow is God's judgment of today.

Our gospel reading for today is all about being smart and clever. The dishonest but shrewd manager, sensing that he is in danger of losing  his job today, finally hits on the right strategy and begins turning the table in his favor for tomorrow's sake. The original meaning of "shrewdness" is  "foresight." A shrewd person grasps a critical situation with resolution and foresight. In spiritual context, Jesus is concerned with spiritual crisis which is more critical than financial crisis. We can avert this crisis through the exercise of faith and foresight. The challenge is that if Christians would only expend as much foresight and energy to spiritual matters which have eternal consequences as much as they do to earthly matters which have temporal consequences, then they would be truly better off, both in this life and in the age to come. And so this is now our mission.

Children of light

Who are the children of light? they are those who follow Jesus Christ, who is the light. And how is Christ present in the world today? He is in the world in as much as we carry him as children of light for the world. If we are what we should be we will set the whole word ablazed. If we pray as should pray, we will light up the world.

Let us be smart and clever. Prudently we need to be smart and clever. We need to evaluate how we can most effectively bring souls to Christ and re-evangelize and re-Christianize Christians in their culture. However, this is not an easy task and it implies a risk.  To be children of light means to be closer associate of Jesus, thus to preach the gospel of Christ crucified means endangering one's reputation and status and even one's life; it means leaving one's comfort zone and not fearing labelled as crazy or a dreamer.

Let us posses the ideal. In order to accomplish this we need first possess the ideal of Jesus Christ. Our hearts must be full of Him because no one gives what he does not have. The ideal involves the insight of our will. Christ is our ideal. Christ is our light. Possessing Christ will in turn bring us to deal astutely with our present generation and bring it to Christ's light.