Today’s gospel message is a bit unnerving from our modern point of view. But we must remember to view and consider things with “eyes of faith,” that is, from God’s perspective.

We hear in this Sunday’s gospel that a “master heaps praise on his steward for his dishonesty” This parable not only seems confusing to us but has also baffled many a scripture scholars’ mind.

Jesuit scripture scholar Fr. John Donohue offers a few thoughts on both today’s and last weekend’s (the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal’s Son) gospels. Let’s take a look. It seems that in the parable of the Prodigal Son there is an attempt by one who created a difficult situation (the younger son) to make a plan to get out of the trouble he himself made but his Father overturns the son’s plans with a powerful gift of generosi-ty and mercy. What could have been a long family rift is healed by generosity and mercy, at least between the father and younger son. In this weekend’s gospel, the dishonest steward also gets into trouble of his own making, then he creates a plan to extricate himself from that “situation,” and then his plan too is foiled by generosity of the master. In both situations, God is extravagant and goes out of His way to forgive and heal.

So how might this apply to our lives? We too are sometimes presented, by a loved one or by own mak-ing, with a difficult situation. And we then find ourselves in the midst of a plan to rectify the problem. The sto-ries—parables—that Jesus told, noted above, were shocking to his original hearers and they remain shocking to us in the modern world. But remember, parables are hyperbole, that is they are meant to shock us by exaggeration. Diving deeper into the meaning of God’s extravagant and magnanimous mercy, His generosity, we must also come to see that His forgiveness and grace, His desire to find what or who are lost, to heal their infirmities, is the nature of our loving God. We see this in the words of the “Our Father” particularly when we say, “…forgive us our sins as we forgive others….” Do we hear these words ring loud-and-clear in our minds as we perhaps begin to judge the older son in the Prodigal Son’s parable for his lack of forgiveness, do we view the seemingly conniving steward as a “Machiavellian-like” figure—or those in our circle of family, friends or ac-quaintances -- our own “risk taking shepherds, the squandering housekeepers, irresponsible children, or con-niving business managers—or you and me?” There is an old Christian saying, “God is good all the time, and all the time God is good”…and we can define that “good” as amazingly merciful, because His desire is to find what is lost, heal what is broken, and welcome home what truly belongs to Him.

These gospel parables are not about a far too sappy parent who just wants to be his or her child’s best friend at any cost, or a business leader who does not want to let the world see his corporate dirty laundry. Rather, these gospels are to highlight the amazing nature of God as well as the un-amazing nature, at times, of humanity and to illustrate His Love for us,
His mercy extended to heal and recall us rather than tell us “I told you so,” and to bring us into right relationship with each other and with Him—for all eternity—as we come to extend the mercy we want from God to those around us in need of our mercy.