25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Readings: Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 112 (113): 1-2, 4-8; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13
Picture: By cheng feng on Unsplash
My dear friends, if the going rate for a 10-minute express haircut is around $15, why would anyone charge less than $10? Aren’t there at least three possible reasons? Back in June this year, an elderly gentleman discovered the first of these reasons the hard way. He went for what was supposed to be an $8 haircut at a shop in Ang Mo Kio, and was tricked into paying $1,000 for scalp treatments he did not need. But a low price doesn’t always indicate a swindle. Sometimes it may just be a way to attract more customers, with the hope that a higher sales volume will more than make up for the lower profit margin of each haircut. Shrewd business strategy. This is the second reason for charging less. Then there are also those who offer free haircuts to seniors and the disabled, because they genuinely wish to serve those in need. Swindle, strategy and service. More than just different motivations for charging less, these three reasons also reflect different ways of relating to money. Swindle, strategy and service. Don’t we find something similar in our scriptures today?
In the first reading, through the prophet Amos, God exposes the unjust practices of the rich people in Israel. Not satisfied with offering less goods for higher prices, they also engage in swindling and tampering with the scales. They even sell goods that are barely fit for human consumption. The sweepings or, in another translation (RSV), the refuse of the wheat. Like that hair salon in Ang Mo Kio, these people are shameless swindlers. Ruthlessly, they prey on the vulnerable, just to turn a profit. They trample on the needy, and suppress the poor. Yet, from a spiritual perspective, they’re not really making money, as much as they’re allowing themselves to be enslaved by it. They’re not so much using money, as being used by it. As a result, they are separating themselves from God. For we cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
Swindling is also what we find in the story told by Jesus in the gospel. Except that, here, it is the rich man who is being swindled by his own steward, whom he had earlier sacked for being wasteful with his property. Yet when the rich man discovers his steward’s dishonesty, instead of taking him to court, and demanding full restitution, he praises him for his astuteness. Why? Could it be because the rich man realises that he himself stands to gain from the swindle? For isn’t it reasonable to expect that, by accepting less in his master’s name, the steward has raised his master’s reputation in the eyes of his debtors, who may decide to borrow even more from him? And when others hear of this, they too are likely to want to borrow from the rich man. Thus increasing the number of his customers, and making him even richer. So the rich man’s reaction may well be an example of sound business strategy. Like a shrewd hairdresser charging less, he’s willing to accept a strategic loss, in the hope of achieving a longer term gain.
But Jesus tells the story as a parable, not a case study. The lesson he seeks to impart is spiritual, rather than financial. Just as it makes good business sense for the rich man to accept less now, in order to build up his customer base, and make even more money in the long run, so too does it make good spiritual sense for us to use money to serve the poor while on earth, so as to be welcomed by them into eternity. The unspoken assumption is that the poor are friends of God. As the psalmist tells us, from the dungheap (the Lord) raises the poor, to set him in the company of princes. To serve the poor is really to serve the Lord himself.
Swindle, strategy and service. Three different ways of relating with money, with the poor and, ultimately, with God. Swindle, strategy and service. Don’t we continue to find all three in our world today? And not just among hairdressers. So what can we do to reduce the swindle, and increase the service? In the second reading, St Paul offers one basic way. My advice, he says, is that… there should be prayers offered for everyone… especially for kings and others in authority… Praying for those who may have power to safeguard the well-being of the most vulnerable, including Mother Earth herself.
Which brings to mind something Pope Leo XIV said in a recent interview. Asked about the polarisation we are witnessing in the world, the Pope saw fit to highlight one factor that he thinks is very significant. Namely, the ever widening gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive. For example, CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving, now make 600 times more…
Sisters and brothers, as important as it is to manage our own financial affairs strategically, what can we do to help reduce the swindling, and increase the service in our world today?
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