{"id":8841,"date":"2019-09-22T01:26:52","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T08:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lubukhati.org\/?p=8841"},"modified":"2020-03-08T16:40:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T23:40:22","slug":"friends-with-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/?p=8841","title":{"rendered":"Friends with Money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

25th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 22, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke 16:1-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is something strange in our Gospel today. Jesus is praising the\ncunning steward. Why does Jesus commend his shrewd action? To understand Jesus\u2019\nwords, we need to comprehend first what really takes place with this servant\nand his master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a steward who had been entrusted by his master to take care of\nhis master\u2019s house and possession, and yet, instead doing his job, he prefers\nto squander his master\u2019s wealth and betrays his master\u2019s trust. Angered master\ndoes what he is expected to do. He fires his useless servant. Yet, upon this\nimpending judgment, the servant realizes that he is not able to dig, meaning he\ncannot labor in the farmland or at the construction sites. He is also ashamed\nto become a beggar. Then, he engineers a way out. He calls all his master\u2019s\ndebtors and cut into half all their debts by manipulating their letter of\nagreement. By doing this, he is doing a favor to them and making them as their friends.\nThis is to secure way to survive after his expulsion. Surely this is\nmanipulation and corruption, and yet he is praised for doing so. What\u2019s going\non?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus gives us an example of how smart the children of this world manage\ntheir affairs. In the time of crisis, the wicked servant is able to discern\nwell what is most important in his life, that is his survival. For a while, the\nservant is attached to the wealth of his master and spending them as if this\nmoney is his. But, when he realizes he is in the great trouble, he makes the\nright choice. He detaches himself from his addiction from wealth and make them\nas a means to achieve his survival. Jesus then compares the children of this\nworld, and the children of light. If the children of this world can use and\nmanipulate the material possession for their earthly motives, so the children\nof light shall use the same wealth to attain even a loftier goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This teaching of Jesus is important and massive implication. We are not\nonly allowed, but even encouraged to use the material goods and wealth in order\nto reach heaven. Jesus even uses a stronger term: make friends with dishonest\nwealth! Surely, it does not mean we can buy heaven, or we can bribe God! We\ncannot never do those things. These material possession and money serve us as\nmeans to live decent lives, help each other and worship God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that we, the children of light, are not friends with\nwealth. We either hate money or we love money. Firstly, some of us may have a\nperspective that money is evil, dangerous and leading to sin. Thus, when we\nhate money, we detest also those who have money. The hatred of money may lead\nto hatred of others, and we may fail to fulfill Christ\u2019s commandment: to love\none another. Secondly, many of us love money. We are attached to earthly wealth\nthat we forget their true purpose. We make means into the end, and end into the\nmeans. We turn our family, friends, employees, religion, even God as tools to\ngain more and more money. It is a disheartening reality nowadays that some\npeople create new religions and churches to enrich themselves. We are only to\nlove God and to love each other for the love of God, but never money. We make\nfriends with earthly wealth in order for us to gain heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
\nSeptember 22, 2019
\nLuke 16:1-13<\/p>\n

There is something strange in our Gospel today. Jesus is praising the cunning steward. Why does Jesus commend his shrewd action? To understand Jesus\u2019 words, we need to comprehend first what really takes place with this servant and his master.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-8841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8842,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8841\/revisions\/8842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}