8th Sunday after Pentecost 6.7.08 The smart thing to do.
Our Lord praises the dishonest steward, not for his dishonesty, but for his astuteness – that he used his brains. Beyond that He does not comment.
The reason He is telling us this story is that He wants us to use our brains also. Or more theologically, to use the gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge and counsel – all graciously provided by the Holy Spirit.
There is in prevailing secular opinion an idea that religious faith is more or less the opposite of intelligence. [An academic recently conducted a survey among other academics and found that most of them did not believe in God. His conclusion was that since academics are generally more intelligent than the average population belief in God shows a certain lack of intelligence.]
Many see the loss of faith as a kind of graduation to maturity. You believe those things as a child but shed them on reaching adulthood. Many do follow that path, but that does not prove it is a wise thing to do.
Firstly we need to say that intelligence is not the same as wisdom. A person of low intelligence could show far greater wisdom by humbly accepting the truth of the Gospel than a highly educated person in rejecting the Gospel. Wisdom is the smart thing to do; it is what we really do with our lives. It is the practice and not just the theory.
The main proof of possessing wisdom is the unquestioning belief in God – not only His existence, but His importance and centrality for every aspect of life. Then, putting into practice what one believes, so that there is no gap between the theory and the practice.
We show lack of wisdom when we commit any kind of sin, because then we are acting in a way which contradicts what we believe - and this is a fundamental split in our lives, which has a lot of negative consequences (guilt, fear, depression, anger, addictions...)
The lifelong challenge we face is to close the gap between what we believe and what we do, or to put it another way, to believe what we believe to such a degree that there is no room for any other action.
Our problem is that we do believe but not enough in all the truths of our faith, and that ‘not enough’ leaves us room to look for other things to compensate. That is when we turn to false gods, the golden calves of the world, to fill up the void.
Sin is always a misjudgment of some kind; a false assessment of value.
In the intellect (mind) we know what we have to do, and that seems easy enough, but in the will (heart) we find we are not always motivated to do what ought.
There is a split between heart and mind. How can we fix it?
By asking for more light for the intellect, so that we are flooded completely with the light of Christ, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit; to the point that there is no possible room for any alternative view of reality.
Then the will follows automatically what is in the intellect. As things are the will is wobbly because the intellect is cloudy. We do not fully grasp what God is putting before us, so we do not fully accept it.
For example, chastity is God’s will, and we can see what is good about chastity, yet we are still dabbling with impurity.
There is no sin committed in heaven, because everyone there is fixed on the vision of God and seeing Him there is no possible alternative.
If we are to be free from sin (epistle) we must ask to see God more clearly in this life; see His will; see the wisdom of His laws.
The smart thing to do is to pray to be smart. Smart (wise) enough to see the truth and where it comes from, and then (as a matter of course) to live that way.
