Daily Reflection – 11/7/2025
Sacred Scripture
Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. 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.’ 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. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 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.’ Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.” (Luke 16:1-8)
Reflection
The parable of the dishonest manager is one of those passages that leave us scratching our heads. Jesus tells a story about a manager who, facing dismissal for squandering his master’s property, shrewdly uses his remaining time to secure his future. He calls in his master’s debtors and drastically reduces what they owe, currying favor so they will welcome him into their homes when he is unemployed. The surprise comes in verse 8: the master commends the dishonest manager for his prudence.
It’s a curious parable, and it has puzzled readers since the days of the early Church fathers. Is Jesus praising dishonesty? Absolutely not. Instead, He is drawing a sharp, challenging comparison to wake us up. The key to understanding this story lies in Jesus’s own commentary: “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.”
Jesus presents two kinds of people. First, there are the “children of this world.” These are people who see and value only the things of this world. They live for the here and now, concentrating their attention and investing all their energy in it. They see themselves as owners of their resources, and they are single-minded and decisive in using those resources to achieve their goals. The dishonest manager is a perfect example. He saw his world crumbling and acted with urgent, clever self-interest.
Then there are the “children of light.” This is us—Christian believers who see that real, eternal, spiritual values are primary, and temporal things are secondary. The problem, as Jesus points out, is that we often lack the same urgency and shrewdness about eternal matters that the children of this world show for temporary ones. We can become sleepy, complacent stewards.
This parable is a powerful call to embrace the principle of stewardship. If we understand that everything we have—our money, possessions, talents, and time—is a gift from God, we realize He is the true owner of it all. We are simply His managers. We are entrusted with the Master’s resources to further the Master’s goals, not just to build our own comfortable kingdoms.
This stewardship extends far beyond our bank accounts. How are we managing our lives? Are we allowing the light of God’s truth to shine into every area? Or have we cordoned off certain parts—our careers, our relationships, our private thoughts—as being outside the reach of the Gospel? The dishonest manager used his master’s assets for his own purposes, and we must ask ourselves if we are doing the same, treating God’s gifts as if they were entirely our own.
The Christian faith is meant to penetrate every aspect of how we live. We belong to God either totally or not at all. As His followers, we are called to serve Him first. We cannot use our money, influence, and time exclusively to serve our own purposes and expect to be faithful stewards. It’s helpful to remember the old proverb: “Money can buy everything but true happiness, and it can purchase a ticket to every place except to Heaven.” Worldly wealth has its limits, but our stewardship of it has eternal consequences.
We should allow Jesus’s words to challenge us. This isn’t a story to be simply analyzed and filed away; it is a call to action. We must approach our faith with humility and honesty, inviting the Holy Spirit to show us where we have been lazy or self-serving stewards. May this strange and compelling parable root itself deep within us, sparking not just a moment of reflection, but a real and lasting change in our lifestyle. We need to be as shrewd, as urgent, and as wholehearted for the kingdom of light as the children of this world are for their fading treasures.
Prayer of The Day
“Lord Jesus, all that I have is a gift from you. May I love you freely and generously with all that I possess. Help me to be a wise and faithful steward of the resources you put at my disposal, including the use of my time, money, and possessions.”
Daily Note
We are all stewards of what God has entrusted to us, so some day we will have to give Him an account of our stewardship. We prepare ourselves for all kinds of things, most of which never happen. But do we care enough for our souls to insure ourselves against the one thing that most certainly will happen? We must meet God and give an accounting. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil” (II Corinthians 5:10).
