For the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than
are the children of light. Isn't this true? It seems as though if we compromise with our faith and with
moral virtue, we'll get ahead. The crooked politician, the dishonest businessman always seems to be getting
what they want in this world. I think the translation in this particular lectionary is a bit
unfortunate when it says, for the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own
generation than are the children of light. And in the English language, there is that sense in which we can
talk about a kind of secular prudence. But in the context of our own proclamation of the gospel, prudence is a
moral virtue. It's not just an intellectual virtue, sort of shrewdness or astuteness, which probably is a
better translation of the kind of...
cleverness that the worldly have in dealing with their own kind. It's an intellectual kind of cleverness, but it's not
prudence, because prudence is knowing what is right and then applying the truth to the difficult circumstances that we
find ourselves in. And that's certainly not what the shrewd steward did. He didn't apply the truth to the
what is right to a difficult circumstance. And it wasn't his sense of justice and his astute application of justice to his difficult
circumstance that he was praised for by his master. He was praised for his dishonesty. You know, he got fired in the end, but his
boss, basically, who was probably a dishonest man himself, said, well, you know, he's good at what he does. He's good at what he does.
And he certainly was. He knew he couldn't support himself by digging ditches, so he ingratiated himself with his boss's customers by
dishonestly writing off their debt. Our Lord's point here is that those who love money know how to make money, and they really apply
themselves to making money. And if they live for money, they will do everything they possibly can to get it and to maintain it and to make it
grow.
And they can be very, very smart at doing it, not only intellectually smart, but in terms of the choices that they make, they make good
choices that ultimately leads them to become rich. And our Lord is disappointed and sorrowful because there's nothing wrong with that in
itself, you know, making money. I'm not decrying that at all. But our Lord's saying people can do it.
And if they do this for money, why can't they do it for something that is infinitely more important, which is eternal salvation?
I often point out that if we kept our checkbooks, balanced our checkbooks the way we balance our spiritual life sometimes, we'd be broke.
And that is what our Lord is saying. You know, it's fine to make money. You have to support yourselves, and you should be
responsible and use your money wisely and all the rest. But we should keep the checkbook of our spiritual life with even more astuteness
and effort. And we can. The difference, though, the difficulty that arises and the reason why the worldly are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than the spiritual are in dealing with their own kind is because it's easy to be
motivated to be rich. It's easy to be motivated to get what we want. We are, because of our fallen nature, fundamentally selfish, and it's
selfish. It's quite easy to be selfish. It is difficult, however, to be selfless. And
that's what our Lord asks of us, that we should be selfless. God wants us to be happy. He
wants us to experience joy in the good things of this world and in serving him, and that's
fine. But as Benedict XVI pointed out in his encyclical on God as love, that that joy
that we seek should be subordinated to something more important, which is true love, sacrificial
love, our desire to give ourselves to the other, and first of all, to give ourselves
to God. And that requires effort. That requires
selflessness.
You might say infinitely more effort than it does to make money, because we have to
pour ourselves out. Instead of filling up our treasury in this life, we have to pour
ourselves out in this life in view of joys which are more intangible, with no immediate
results sometimes from the service of God, from doing the right thing. We might do the
wrong thing. Sometimes we complain, like Saint Theresa of Avila complained. She got
knocked off her horse and broke her arm. She said to God, if this is the way you treat
your friends, no wonder you have so few. But she said it sort of tongue in cheek and out
of her pain, you know, but she understood that God asks us to sacrifice. And that's
something that we struggle with throughout our lives.
Today we rejoice with Mark and Anita on their anniversary, 25 years of marriage.
And all of us know that no matter who it is that gets married, 25 years is a long time to be faithful.
And it's a joy, but it's also a sacrifice.
It's fruitful, but the fruitfulness is the result of fidelity.
And fidelity comes at a cost.
And why shouldn't it?
Why should we want the things that are best in life to come without effort?
We shouldn't.
We know that that's not the way things are.
And people are willing to make all kinds of sacrifices for things that matter far less than marriage.
And certainly infinitely less than our eternal sacrifice.
People will torture themselves to lose weight, to become good at a sport.
Why shouldn't we be willing to make sacrifices to be faithful to God and to be faithful to the promises that we have made?
Chesterton put it very succinctly and eloquently when he said,
Catholicism has not been tried and found wanting.
It's been found difficult and left untried.
And we can say that.
It's very true of our spiritual life in general.
Very often we don't do much in our spiritual life.
Not because we've tried it and found it unfruitful.
We've found it difficult and decided not to go along with it.
Not to go further with it.
It is difficult.
But it's rewarding as well if we are willing to persevere.
And understand that the goodness of the Lord that he desires us to taste comes in forms that we have to immediately,
be willing to humble ourselves in front of in order to experience.
We can experience inexpressible joy, joy beyond measure.
Anything that we've experienced in this life elsewise through the Eucharist.
But unless we're willing to humble ourselves, it's not going to happen.
So the challenge is from the get-go.
But our Lord is a good and faithful master.
Who wants to give us everything.
And it's just a step away really.
It's the difference between making an act of humility and not making an act of humility.
Between adoration and pride.
It's only a step away.
But we have to ask our Lord and Savior.
Ask the Blessed Mother to give us the grace to make that step.
And to.
Make a definitive decision to serve God rather than mammon.
To put our Lord first.
To balance the checkbook of our spiritual life before anything else.
And to keep good accounting in our service of the Lord.
If we do this, our Lord promises us that we will be happy.
And our Lord's promises are sure.
That's the virtue of hope.
May we have truly that shrewdness.
Which is not merely a shrewdness of this world.
But is truly prudence.
Knowing what to do and when to do it.
Out of love for God.
Putting Him first in all things.
And seeking to find happiness that He alone can give.
A peace which this world can never give.
But which only He can give.
Because only He can bring life out of death.
And joy out of pain.
Only our Lord can show us the way of true love.
Which is joy, yes.
But it's the fruit of sacrifice.
The fruit of pouring ourselves out for Him.
And for one another.