We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

This Sunday’s Gospel portrays the somewhat difficult to understand parable of the dishonest servant being praised.  Dishonesty is being praised.

Today’s Gospel tells the parable of the unfaithful servant who has failed in his duty of stewardship.  He faces the prospect of unemployment, reduced status and even ridicule.   Strangely in the parable this dishonest servant rolls the dice, so to speak, and does it wisely. He calls the master’s debtors and simply reduces their debt.  In other words, he is banking on his master’s generosity.  By writing down the debts, he actually makes the claim that his master cannot fault him:  that the master forgives those who owe him, that he is generous and magnanimous.  For banking on this defining virtue of the master, the dishonest servant was praised.

If I may take you back to last Sunday’s Gospel, it appears in the Gospel of Luke just before today’s Gospel.  This is the beautiful parable of the Prodigal Son. The clear message of the parable is that our God is a forgiving, loving father who welcomes and embraces his son with much love.  The father leads with compassion and forgiveness rather than judgment or confrontation.  The son receives the forgiving love of his father much more that he deserves on the basis of justice or fairness.  In contrast to the judgmental scowl of the older brother in the parable, the father reveals a generosity of love and mercy.

The message of this hard to understand parable is similar to the parable of the prodigal son or perhaps we should rename that parable to the parable of the forgiving father. The dishonest servant in today’s parable might be referred to the prodigal servant similar to the prodigal son of last Sunday’s Gospel.  He was prodigal in the sense that he wasted his master’s possessions.  But if even dishonest servants recognize the value of generosity and forgiveness, then we the children of light ought to recognize their value all the more.  We, in a similar fashion to the dishonest servant, are to give witness to generosity and forgiveness in the way we are with one another.

The Word of God thus challenges us about our relationship with God and with one another.  If God is so generous and forgiving to us, we too must be generous and forgiving with one another.  

We cannot be the disciples of Jesus and think and act merely in terms of the raw justice of the world.  None of us could be saved if God applied strict justice on the basis of our merits. The readings today remind us of the duty to imitate the God of utter magnanimity, graciousness and forgiveness. The Gospel confirms this message, albeit in a way that is not obvious at first glance.

This parable challenges to think and act in the way that God in Jesus has shown us which is not raw justice of the world but the justice and the very mercy of God.

In our liturgy each and every Sunday, we give thanks to the God of faithfulness, love and mercy.  In our Penitential Rite we confess that none of us are perfect and we depend upon God to write straight with crooked lines.

I am convinced in my own prayer that the more I recognize in myself that I am the prodigal son in the ways that through my sinfulness I have left the spiritual home of my father and yet God the Father always desires to welcome me back home by showering his mercy and forgiveness upon me home.  With confidence I deeply believe that I am immersed in the merciful love of Jesus and that my future is full of hope.  The message is we are forgiven sinners.  The emphasis is not on our sinfulness but on the forgiving love of God.

So too, in my examination of conscience, I recognize that because of my sinfulness I am at times that dishonest steward who has not shared with others the love and giftedness that I have been given by our loving God.  And yet, God is always a God of second and third and fourth chances.  We can trust that our God goes with us and our generosity with others will always be praised and a source of our own blessings.

How does the Word of God connect with your life on this day as you reflect on this servant who is being praised for being generous with his master’s possessions?  The parable is challenging to think spiritually.  Our relationship with God is not based on raw justice, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  None of us deserve the grace of God that is showered upon each and every one of us.  May we acknowledge the prayer we say before receiving Communion:  Lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; say but the Word and my soul will be healed.

We are the recipients of the unmerited love and mercy of God.  Thanks be to God.  May we live with an attitude of gratitude.  As St. Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels.  Yes, in our human condition we are but earthen vessels but through God’s grace we have the treasure of God’s unconditional love that is within us.

As the disciples of Jesus, as the faith community of St. Joseph’s, we are called to witness to the extravagant love and mercy of God in the lives of others.  Just as the dishonest steward boldly trusted in the master’s generosity in writing down the debts of the master’s debtors, we can trust in the Father’s generosity and mercy as we share God’s love with one another.

We as a parish community are far from perfect; we acknowledge that we are sinners, individually and as a faith community.   But the grace we seek is spiritual shrewdness.  We can always trust that the extravagant mercy of God will be showered upon us much more than we deserve and the grace and mercy of God will be showered upon others much more than they deserve.

As disciples, we are the stewards of God’s love.  It cannot be the attitude of “My way or the highway.”  We are not to pronouncement judgments upon others that they don’t deserve the blessings of life.  We have no business gossiping or critiquing the value of others.

Rather we are to rejoice that all of us are earthen vessels who contain within us the treasure of God’s love.

Have a Blessed Day.