25th Sunday Year C - Homily 5

Homily 5 - 2019

It has been a mixed week – beginning with the three articles that appeared in the Age about Corpus Christi seminary. Nothing new – but rugged reading all the same. Part of me prefers that everything would simply quieten down. But then I think – No! We as Church haven’t done nearly enough to repair what can be repaired of the past, or to safeguard as best we can the future that awaits us. Without articles like the ones that were published during the week, we could easily do nothing. They are humiliating. They hurt. But the hurt we feel is nothing compared to the trauma experienced by the abused victims and by their families. The protocols that have been set up are good, but protocols are not enough. As Church we have not yet been converted. The culture behind the offending needs to be understood and addressed. Some in the Church have begun to do so, but infinitely more needs to be done. I wonder, and I hope that the Plenary Council may take a significant step in the right direction.

The week finished up better. I am very much encouraged by the young people all around the world, but also here in Australia, who marched on Friday to focus attention on the immediate need for the whole world to respond urgently to the threats of Global Warming. So many young people seem determined and well informed and articulate. Not long ago Pope Francis had a conversation in the Vatican with the sixteen-year-old young woman, Greta Thunberg, from Sweden who is heading up the youthful non-violent protests against the pathetic inactivity of so many world leaders. Pope Francis himself has not been slow to express his concern for our world, for its increasing degradation, and for the devastating effect especially on the poor and defenceless. He has scheduled to start on 7th October a special Synod of Bishops to consider, among other things, the issues involved in the appalling exploitation that has been destroying the priceless but fragile Amazon region of South America.

Sadly, many of those who do care about Global Warming feel helpless and discouraged – tempted to shrug the shoulders, accept that it is all too hard, and get back to business as usual. I believe that today’s Gospel can be relevant to this current situation.

The story Jesus told is magnificent. It has everyone scratching their heads, wondering. Did he mean what he seems to have said? Did the “master” really “praise the dishonest steward”? It depends on the translation. Jesus’ comment could have had the master saying something like, “Well, you have got to give it to the scoundrel. He is certainly a smart operator.” When telling parables, Jesus was usually intent on stimulating people to think, to try to work out what he could have meant. Luke, however, less trusting teacher that he was, was not content with leaving things up in the air. So, in his puzzlement, he added to the parable five or six possible moral conclusions, gathered no doubt from remembered sayings of Jesus, uttered in different settings at different times – but not all relevant.

The comment that I think does apply to our present situation is this: “the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light”. How have so many world leaders managed to back out of their commitments that they agreed to in Paris in 2015 to lessen carbon emissions - and the rest of us let them? There is a cost, of course, to climate change commitments. It also means change. It certainly disrupts “business as usual”. And it calls for cooperation – international cooperation. Too hard? Not for those who undertake “to love their neighbour as themselves”. Not for those who, like the prophet Amos in today’s First Reading, have understood God’s “preferential option for the poor”; or those who take to heart another of today’s Gospel conclusions, “Use money ... to win you friends, and thus make sure that … they will welcome you into the tents of eternity”.

Discipleship can have surprising, and demanding, consequences.