The Parable of the Dishonest Steward

This Sunday we have another parable that our Lord Jesus Christ taught to his disciples, it is the Parable of the Dishonest Steward and somehow, 2,000 years later, this story is still very relevant in today’s times. You can read it in Luke 16:1-13.

1[Jesus} said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. 2 He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ 3 The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I known what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship they may welcome me into their homes.’

5 He call in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master? 6 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.’ 7 Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.” He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ 8 And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.

“For the children of his world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.

11 If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? 12 If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? 13 No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted and despite the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

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I’m sure that you must be asking yourself whether our Lord Jesus Christ is embracing this form of dishonesty by praising the dishonest steward? Actually, it is not the dishonesty that our Lord is focusing here; rather it is the prudence of the dishonest steward when faced with the problem of his being fired from his job. He literally fooled his master by giving his debtors a favor by giving them back their promissory notes less than what they owe his master. In the end, the dishonest steward was able to do the debtors a favor, which someday, he would certainly collect from them.

Just when the new Aquino administration took power in Malacañang, there was an issue that was brought into the national consciousness when President Aquino named Mr. Angelito Alvarez as head of the Bureau of Customs (BOC). Little did the people know that last January during the Mango Tee golf tournament in Ayala Alabang, Mr. Lito Alvarez and his golfing partner signed the wrong score and when this was discovered, they were disqualified for this infraction, which is for all intents and purposes is simply dishonesty.

Instead of accepting the blame for themselves, they blamed their caddies. But in golf, even if the caddies do the scoring, the moment the golfer signs the scorecard, it is deemed to be true and correct and if any scores were considered entered wrongly, it is the golfer who should be blamed not the caddies. Not satisfied with the disqualification done on him, Alvarez went to explain his side to the Ayala Alabang Board of Directors and I gathered that he even lectured them on how a tournament ought to be handled. In the end, he was suspended from Ayala Alabang for six months.

Now you might ask, why is entering the wrong score in golf so offensive that a golfer can get disqualified for doing so? This is because golf is a gentleman’s game, where there are no referees in this sport. Hence it is expected for a golfer to inform his foursome that he has committed an infraction and would penalize himself for this. If he doesn’t do so, it is his golfmates who will penalize him for the infraction he has committed.

If there was a howl when the President appointed Alvarez to the Customs despite this information by the Search Committee, this stems from what our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us in today’s gospel “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.” Didn’t we say that this parable is still as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago? Prudence is important for all Catholics, to build treasures not of this earth that can decay, but rather the inexhaustible ones in heaven.

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