How to win eternal friends

 

Welcome to my blog. Peace be with you.

In this blog, by reflecting on the Gospel of Christ Jesus, we try to learn how to live so as to fulfil our destiny as human beings.

Friday 6 November 2020

 

Be kind, merciful and generous to win eternal friends

Gospel

Luke 16:1-8

The master praised the dishonest servant

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘There was a rich man and he had a steward denounced to him for being wasteful with his property. He called for the man and said, “What is this I hear about you? Draw me up an account of your stewardship because you are not to be my steward any longer.” Then the steward said to himself, “Now that my master is taking the stewardship from me, what am I to do? Dig? I am not strong enough. Go begging? I should be too ashamed. Ah, I know what I will do to make sure that when I am dismissed from office there will be some to welcome me into their homes.”

Then he called his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, “How much do you owe my master?” “One hundred measures of oil” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond; sit down straight away and write fifty.” To another he said, “And you, sir, how much do you owe?” “One hundred measures of wheat” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond and write eighty.”

‘The master praised the dishonest steward for his astuteness. For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.’

 

Prayerful reflection

Parables are little stories which illustrate a single point the teller wants to make. Jesus makes up stories from every day life. In life there are all kinds of people and so he tells all kinds of stories. There are many fraudsters and swindlers in society. Here is a story of one such person. Not that we should become like him in his swindling, but that we should become like him in his cleverness. He is going to lose his job. He doesn’t want to be on the street. However, he will be helpless, at least till he can find some other occupation. So, he acts now, to preserve his future.

I am one day going to lose my life. I don’t know when, but I will. Will I ‘be on the street’ ?  Will I go to hell? Then if I don’t want to, I had better act now.

What did he do? He made friends who when he would be in need would help him. Jesus says, act now and preserve your future. Make friends so that when you die there will those who will plead for you.

With whom to make friends? First make friends with Jesus himself and then he will plead successfully with his Father for you. Seeing our lives, we will all need his intercession.  By being kind, merciful and generous with everyone, we will have, by the time we go to judgement, many friends who have benefitted from us. They too will be with Jesus and welcome us into the eternal home of our Father.

The moral of Jesus’ story: now is the opportune time to safeguard your eternal future. Use your brains and act now. Make friends with him. He will be there for you, when you are helpless. Make friends with those who go before you. They will welcome you, when you get home.