5 November 2021

Friday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

The parable of the dishonest steward in today’s Gospel puts before us an example of shrewdness and calculation. In the parable, the dishonest steward shrewdly prepares for when his master removes him from his position. We too are to be shrewd, as Jesus indicates in tomorrow’s Gospel, but in a different way. The acts and attitudes that show shrewdness in a disciple—caring for the poor, disdaining wealth and honor, dedicating time to prayer—appear as foolishness to the world. 

The difference between the shrewdness of the disciple and that of the honest steward lies in the logic behind the disciple’s actions. As disciples, we are to practice the logic of Christ, which is a logic of love and of self-gift. After all, “Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God” (Eph 5:2) upon the cross, an act of worldly foolishness that is “wiser than human wisdom” (1 Cor 1:25).

In our prayer today, let us ask for the grace to act with the prudence and shrewdness of the true disciple, choosing the (seeming) foolishness of God’s love over worldly wisdom and gain.