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A team of 200 priests comment on daily Gospel

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Liturgical day: Friday 31st in Ordinary Time

Gospel text (Lk 16,1-8): «The master commended the dishonest steward for his astuteness». At another time Jesus told his disciples, «There was a rich man whose steward was reported to him for fraudulent service. He summoned the steward and asked him: ‘What is this I hear about you? I want you to render an account of your service for it is about to be terminated’. The steward thought to himself: ‘What am I to do now? My master will surely dismiss me. I am not strong enough to do hard work, and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do: I must make sure that when I am dismissed, there will be some people to welcome me into their house’.

»So he called his master's debtors one by one. He asked the first who came: ‘How much do you owe my master?’. The reply was: ‘A hundred jars of oil’. The steward said: ‘Here is your bill. Sit down quickly and write there fifty’. To the second he put the same question: ‘How much do you owe?’. The answer was: ‘A thousand measures of wheat’. Then he said: ‘Take your bill and write eight hundred’.

»The master commended the dishonest steward for his astuteness. For the people of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light».

Illustration: Fr. Lluís Raventós Artés

Today the Master leaves us baffled ... It seems that He approves of the "culture of a strike of luck": favors and more favors among unsupportive Mafiosi who only think of their own benefit, without caring about the high cost of the many who suffer. But it is not that! It is not a matter of making us "friends of money", but of putting our professional prestige at the service of others. Christians have no vocation of "dumb fools". At work, socially, in sports... God demands us to desire excellence. If not, how would we stir our hearts?

- St. Paul asserted the prestige and rights of his "Roman citizenship". So, am I going to go as a "yokel" through life? Mind you, there is no place in Heaven for "silly little goodies"!