Thirty-First Friday of Ordinary Time

He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’ Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’  He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.

The steward in this parable has squandered his masters property and is about to be removed from his position. However, instead of calling in the debtors and forcing them to pay him his usurious fees so that he might have money, he waves the fees and has each debtor write a new promissory note. These new notes are written for the amount owed to the master minus the steward’s normal fees. He does this to ingratiate himself with his master’s debtors giving up his fees for the gratitude of others. Jesus remarks about the prudence of this sacrifice and how we can learn from this steward about how to handle those in debt to us. We can either demand repayment plus interest for short-term gain and the animosity of those in our debt or we can forgive those who are indebted to us and perhaps gain their long-term admiration. Not that we should forgive others with the expectation of some later return. This would not be truly forgiving another’s debt to us, but rather changing the manner of repayment. Instead, we are asked to forgive and forget and then let the other person decide how to react to our generosity. Perhaps by our example, they too will learn to do the same to others in their lives and we will have been an instrument of God’s Love, Mercy, and Grace.

What have we squandered in our own lives? Who are the people we believe to be in our debt? How can we forgive and forget their debt to us?

O Lord, let us be prudent in our dealings with others and be able to forgive the debts others owe to us without counting the cost or expecting anything in return.

Amen.