The gift of the coat (Giotto, 1296-1304, the Upper Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi) Luke 16.1-13: [1] He also said to his disciples: "There was a rich man who had a steward who was denounced to him for squandering his property. [2] He called and said, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be manager. [3] The steward said to himself, 'What shall I do now that my master takes my administration? Dig, I have no strength to beg I am ashamed. [4] I know what I do because when I am dismissed Administration, there is someone to welcome me into his house. [5] He called for a master's debtors and one said to the first [6] How much do you owe my master? One hundred barrels of oil. He told him: 'Take your bill, sit down and write fifty. [7] Then he said to another: How much do you owe? He replied: One hundred measures of wheat. He told him: Take thy bill and write eighty. [8] The master commended the dishonest steward for his astuteness. The children of this world, in fact, to their peers are more astute than the children of light.
[9] Well, I say to you: make friends with unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, you welcome you into eternal dwellings.
[10] who is faithful in little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in little is dishonest also in much.
[11] So if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will trust that true? [12] And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else, who will give yours?
[13] No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other or you and despise the other. You can not serve God and mammon.
Dear friends, dear friends,
proposed in the passage from the liturgy on Sunday (Luke 16.1-13, Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 23, 2007), the interlocutors are not tax collectors and sinners, as in the previous section (15.1), even those scribes and Pharisees who prefer to listen rather than murmur ( 16.2). Listeners called in question are its disciples. In this sense, the so-called parable dell''amministratore dishonest 'Jesus says not to "outsiders" (1 Cor 5:13), but for all those who are' inside 'the reality of His Church, "also said to his disciples "(16.1).
It is therefore to identify very clearly what it is, properly speaking Church, the assets that would be better administered. In the context of a Western culture that tends to consider first the sense of people and things according to quantitative criteria and visibility material, even the Church of the Disciples of Jesus was - and still is - seen as a major institution ( a large company), some rich people, and property values \u200b\u200bwill inevitably be subject to the logic of market forces and exchange.
We do, however, suffered a clarification: the most precious gift that the disciples of both yesterday and forever, are called to guard and administer is the 'deposit of faith' that Jesus gave us by giving us Himself himself: "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lk 22:19). It is summed up in him all the love and mercy of God that the world, more or less consciously, wait. In this sense, people, goods and values, which are found in the Church and relate mainly to the transmission and administration of Him and His Gospel, or end up being obsolete and unnecessary frills, if not, they become harmful.
In this same perspective is therefore to be accepted sense of this story of Jesus, fixing your attention to the dishonesty of a director: "There was a rich man who had a steward who was denounced to him for being wasteful with his possessions. He called and said, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be manager. "
The call of the master 'to account' becomes a critical challenge for those who, having the responsibility for administering, ends up betraying his deepest vocation. These, coming "in itself" (as the youngest son of the preceding parable, 15.17), introduces us to a critical reflection on the meaning and value of subtlety in relation to the announcement of the gospel itself: "The administrator said himself, 'What shall I do now that my master takes my administration? Dig? I have no strength to beg I am ashamed. I know what to do because when I am dismissed from, there is someone to welcome me into his house. He called for a master's debtors and one said to the first: How much do you owe my master? One hundred barrels of oil. He told him: 'Take your bill, sit down and write fifty. Then he said to another: How much do you owe? He replied: One hundred measures of wheat. He told him: Take thy bill and write eighty. "
A first consideration may assess the real cleverness of this administration. We are located in front of a short-sighted strategy, if the result is actually that of losing a job is so prestigious. La sua ottusità si dimostra soprattutto nella debolezza strategica dimostrata da quest’uomo in rapporto al suo futuro. Come sapesse calcolare bene sull’immediatezza del suo presente, senza intuire che prima o poi i nodi sarebbero venuti al pettine. Soprattutto è chiaro che, come anche Gesù afferma al termine del brano, “nessun servo può servire a due padroni: o odierà l'uno e amerà l'altro oppure si affezionerà all'uno e disprezzerà l'altro. Non potete servire a Dio e a mammona”.
Ma in gioco c’è una questione più alta. Se è vero che anche Gesù è convinto che “I figli di questo mondo, infatti, verso i loro pari sono più scaltri dei figli of light "- the rest would be interesting to understand better the meaning of this statement - however this does not exonerate" the sons of light "from trying to be clever, seen mostly in what is called on them to keep and administer. Do not forget, in fact, that "the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and the violent take it by force" (Matt. 11:12).
In this respect it is not identifying the waste of administrative man as an appropriate methodology for the Gospel. The end never justifies any means in relation to the proclamation of the gospel. If in fact mammon, Besides being an idol dangerous, easily becomes an idol perverse, the shrewdness, according to Jesus, would succeed in blocking this voracious mundane mechanism by introducing a different perspective. Both the accumulation of wealth is dispersed in the hands of a few, but rather the gift and gratuity - fully expressed by self-performed by Jesus - teach us a new intelligence strategy and an interesting ad. In exercising the logic of the gift is not only neutralized the danger of a false tank, but above all we are given - being first to the reality of the Church of the Disciples of the Lord - to become truly free. Available primarily for Him Because the announcement of him spreading handfuls above all love and hope. And "The master commended the dishonest steward for his astuteness."
Even the suggestion will be lost gospel suggests that Jesus at the end of the parable: "Make friends with the unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings", ie the time at which we will enter definitively into the infinite mystery of God after death. What will happen at that moment no one can anticipate, but why not - as suggested by the Gospel - we are meeting all those people, known and unknown, that in this life we \u200b\u200bhave achieved with a gesture of gratitude. Maybe even with a smile.
Above all, we will meet him, with the same intensity of sweetness and affection with which, from Sunday to Sunday, comes to us with the gift of His Word, His body and His blood shed for us, just with love. Without any claim of return.
That this is so for all a peaceful Sunday.
Don Walter Magni
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