When I was younger, I remember hearing this Gospel about the “dishonest steward” and thinking, “Wait! What’s happening here? Is Jesus really praising a crook?!” It almost sounds like He’s telling us to embrace a way of life where others are being taken advantage of and cheated. But as always, if we sit with this a little bit longer and reflect on it a bit more deliberately, we start to realize that Jesus is making a much more important point.

What Jesus admires and praises here is not dishonesty; instead, He is bringing attention to urgency, creativity, and determination. The steward realized his time was short. The position he had with his master was beginning to slip away. And so, what did he do? He acted decisively. He moved quickly. He prepared for the future. Jesus is saying to His disciples, and to us: Do we have that same urgency when it comes to our eternal future? Do we live with the same determination when it comes to following Christ?

That’s the theological heart of today’s Gospel: we cannot serve two masters. We can’t straddle the line between God and mammon, between living for heaven and clinging to earth. Sooner or later, we have to make a choice.

Now here’s where it gets practical. Think for a moment about how quickly we jump into action when something feels urgent in daily life. If the car breaks down, we don’t wait a week to fix it, we call the mechanic right away. If a family member needs help, we don’t hesitate, we’re there in a heartbeat. If the roof leaks during a storm, we do whatever we can to patch it up before the water ruins the house.

We know how to act when something feels urgent. And Jesus is asking: Do we bring that same urgency to our souls? To our relationship with God? Or do we put it off, thinking, “I’ll pray tomorrow. I’ll forgive that person later. I’ll get serious about faith eventually”?

Think about it: if the dishonest steward could act that quickly just to secure a roof over his head, shouldn’t we act even more decisively to secure eternal life?

That’s where the Prophet Amos comes in. He warns those who trample the poor and cheat the vulnerable, because their eyes are fixed only on profit. They’re more concerned about how to make a buck, how to secure their financial futures, to extend their status and wealth. But God sees what is happening. He sees the impacts of this on those who are most vulnerable. He hears the cry of the poor. And what He’s saying through Amos is this: don’t let money or ambition blind us to justice, to mercy, to love. If we serve mammon (earthly goods, material wealth), we will inevitably exploit others; but if we serve God, we will inevitably love others.

And then St. Paul gives us the bridge in our second reading…He connects all of this together. He tells us that the primary way for us to make sure we are focusing on the right thing, giving our attention to the right master is by praying. He tells us to intercede for others. Be people who lift the world up to God instead of tearing it down. If we want to live in a society where Christ is Lord, then we have to be people of prayer and people of action.

So here is how we can put our priorities in check…

• First, we have to choose our master. We have to ask ourselves honestly: Am I serving Christ, or am I serving wealth, status, or comfort? If there’s even a little tug toward the wrong master, Jesus wants us to surrender that to Him. Talk to Him about it in prayer and ask Him to reorder that desire. Maybe even consider bringing it to confession.
• Second, act with urgency. Don’t put striving for holiness off until tomorrow. Make a concrete, practical decision today. It could be praying for someone you struggle to love. It could be making an intentional act of generosity for the poor. It could be shutting down a habit that’s distracting you from God. Do it now…because eternity is closer than we think.
• Finally, live with confidence. Serving God doesn’t mean losing joy; it doesn’t mean losing freedom and it certainly doesn’t mean living in fear. It means discovering the true treasure, finding true peace and joy in following the Lord. As St. John Vianney once said: “The soul belongs only to God. Only He can satisfy it.”

Jesus doesn’t want us to be anxious; He wants us to be decisive. Choose the Master who never fails. Choose the One whose Kingdom lasts forever. And live this week with urgency, courage, and joy. Because if we invest in Christ, if we choose the God who loves us, if we choose Him as our Master we will never, ever come up empty.

Image: Parable of the Unjust Steward, A.N. Mironov. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Wikimedia Commons.