387. Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)

Meditations no. 608 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The parable of the unfaithful steward impels us to seek holiness and apostolate with eagerness

THE so-called “parable of the unfaithful administrator,” which is related to us in the Gospel of today’s Mass, is centered on the conduct of this personage, a worldly administrator of goods, skilful, cunning and lacking in any sense of loyalty. When the owner is finally informed of his dealings, he decides to call him to account and dismiss him. And the administrator said to himself: “What am I going to do, since my master takes away my administration? I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I know what they have done to receive me in their homes when they dismiss me from the administration.” He visited his master’s debtors, changing the receipts with a considerable reduction in debts. When he heard this, the master praised the unfaithful administrator for having acted shrewdly; for the children of this world are more shrewd in their own way than the children of light.

Both this praise and the enigmatic comment of the Lord afterwards - therefore, if you were not faithful in unjust wealth, who will entrust you with the true one? - are not, of course, intended to accept fraudulent conduct, but to emphasize that people who set their hearts on earthly goods often strive with more zeal and ingenuity in their own business than those who have as their goal to follow Christ. The administrator is bad, but not apathetic; he knows what he wants and, without wasting a moment, he uses the means that seem most appropriate to him. He uses all the resources of his ingenuity, pressed by the imminent dismissal, to secure the favor of other people.

What eagerness men put into their earthly affairs: illusions of honors, ambition of riches, worries of sensuality. “They and they, rich and poor, old and mature men and young and even children: all the same.

“When you and I put the same zeal into the affairs of our souls, we will have a living and operative faith: and there will be no obstacle that we will not overcome in our undertakings of apostolate.”

It is not only a matter of making an effort to care for the interior life, or to personal formation, but of acquiring an authentic zeal, moved by the love of God, to do good and to contribute to the building of a society inspired by Christian principles. Our responsibility is great in the face of the destructive advance of relativism, religious indifference or even hatred of God and the Church. Each one in his personal examination, after considering the evil that has perhaps followed from his lack of Christian integrity - before that soul, before that environment, before such laws - must formulate good resolutions, with the help of grace, to be a good child of light, who leads a life fully consistent with the faith, in all areas of human activity.

To remain in a lament or an irritation in the face of the advances of evil is not only sterile, but often hides a capitulation to the possibilities of contributing personally to the promotion of good in society. Nor does it serve to think that our concrete situation in the social fabric does not allow us to make an effective contribution. Modest or not, it will be valuable if we put at the service of God all the talents - few or many - that God has given us. As the Master has already said: may we children of light put at least the same commitment and obstinacy with which the children of darkness dedicate themselves to their actions in doing good!

“Do not complain: work, instead, to drown evil in abundance of good!”

The exercise of profession with a Christian sense is an indispensable means of apostolate.

Our principal apostolate will always be that of friendship and confidence, by which we seek to bring souls closer to God one by one, aware that Jesus Christ shed his blood for each one. But, our Founder points out, you cannot stop there. You cannot be satisfied when you have already taken some of your relatives or friends on a spiritual retreat, or when you have put them in contact with a priest of the Work. Your apostolic work does not end there. For you must also be perfectly aware that you are carrying out a most fruitful apostolate, when you strive to orient the professions, institutions and human structures in which you work and move with a Christian sense.

To ensure that these institutions and structures conform to the principles that govern a Christian conception of life is to carry out an apostolate on a very broad basis, because - by thus incarnating the spirit of justice - you assure men and women the means to live in accordance with their dignity, and you make it easier for many souls who, with God’s grace, can respond personally to the Christian vocation.

We must think about how to give a decidedly Christian orientation to our profession, and also how each one of us could contribute to the Christian construction of society, considering our knowledge, skills, available time, etc. The Gospel words we read today remind us that love sharpens ingenuity. Christ regrets that among his own servants there are omissions, too much laziness, too little urgency in good works. He calls for prudence and the desire to improve that distances the disciples from the apostolic work. It is a right of God and of souls; it is a peremptory and urgent need in the face of the activity of the enemies of light.

Let us listen to our Father’s teaching. Remember many times, so that it may serve as an encouragement, the Lord’s complaint: filii huius saeculi prudentiores filiis lucis in generatione sua sunt (Lk 10:8); the children of darkness are more prudent than the children of light. These are harsh words, but they are very exact, because, unfortunately, they are fulfilled every day.

In the meantime, the enemies of God and of his Church are moving and organizing. With exemplary constancy, their cadres are trained, schools are maintained where they train managers and agitators, and with a disguised but effective action they propagate their ideas and bring to homes and workplaces their seed of destruction of all religious ideology (…).

My children, let the enemy counsel it. Be wise and prudent and do not fall asleep: hora est iam nos de somno surgere (Rom 13:11), it is time to shake off laziness and drowsiness. Do not forget that places on earth, which were once witnesses of flourishing churches, are now a wasteland, where the name of Christ is not pronounced. It would be easy to try to justify this failure, thinking that it is in God’s plans to write straight with crooked lines and that, in the end, the cause of God always triumphs. It is true that Christ always triumphs, but often in spite of us.

The need for the apostolate of asking for support of apostolic work.

MANY commentators on the Gospel have wondered about the meaning of the words in which the Lord explains one of the teachings of the parable: I say to you, make friends with unrighteous riches, that when they are lacking, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.

It is not a question of becoming an accomplice of injustices, but of learning to obtain resources to carry out the Church’s apostolate in those places where perhaps the environment is prone to greed being placed above justice. Money provides the indispensable human means to develop the work of souls with breadth and depth and permanence - without exhausting burdens: because we do not work with angels and for angels, but with men and for men, with the indispensable needs that come with them.

To achieve this, St. Josemaría continues, do not think that our work in this area is reduced to the simple thing of giving or receiving alms. No: it is a matter of making even the economic movement of non-Catholics an instrument of holiness and apostolate … , taking all the professional precautions and those indicated by the laws of each country.

Offering the possibility of collaborating in the installation and maintenance of apostolic labors, whether the amount that can be asked for or obtained, is a true apostolate. It is also a possibility that is offered to so many people, by giving them the opportunity to use part of their money in something that, in the words of the parable, will serve to be received into eternal dwellings. This financial help can be the beginning of a conversion or an approach to the Christian life, by making these people consider what St. Basil wrote in his time.

“Do you not see some who squander their wealth in the theaters? They squander their fortune on fighters, comedians, fighters who fight against fierce men, whose appearance is repugnant to anyone, for the glory of a moment and for the noise and applause of the people. But you, who are sober in spending, where can you obtain so much glory? God himself will recognize you, the angels will acclaim you, and all men who have existed since creation will call you blessed; you will receive eternal glory, a crown of holiness, and the kingdom of heaven, as a reward for perishable goods but rightly administered.”

Don Álvaro wrote in a family letter: “Be aware, my daughters and sons, that you are rendering a great service to your friends and acquaintances, when you invite them to collaborate in the support of the apostolates - so numerous and varied - that the Prelature carries out in the service of souls. In some cases they may not listen to you: they will invent a thousand excuses not to deprive themselves of anything, because perhaps they are enslaved by money. However, you will not have wasted your time: in addition to receiving a small humiliation for Jesus Christ - for Him and for Him we work, we are not interested in any personal benefit of a material order - which is always a great wealth, the request you have made, supported by your prayer, will resound like a knock on the soul of that person: who knows if that conversation will mark the beginning of a new approach to his journey towards God, as a result of the restlessness you have sown in his heart!

“On other occasions, the Lord blesses this apostolate of asking with the generous response of people who begin by collaborating with their own and end - how many salutary experiences come to mind! - giving themselves to the service of God and of men, moved by the power of vocation. In this way the Lord repeatedly repays the services offered to him by his creatures, which will always be small in comparison with divine generosity.”

In any case, for our part, the search for material means for the work is always a manifestation of apostolic responsibility, which is incumbent on everyone. It is in itself a work of souls, and it must be approached with the same zeal that moves us in other aspects of the apostolate.

To the Blessed Virgin, who strove to carry forward the home of Nazareth, thus collaborating in the Redemption, we ask her to teach us to obtain the collaboration of all, young and old, in order to carry out, also in the material sphere, the apostolic work of the Work.