Hearing The Word

A weekly newsletter delivering context and insight into the Sunday Gospels.

September 21, 2025

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 16:1-13

Jesus said to his disciples:

"The person who is trustworthy in very small matters

is also trustworthy in great ones;

and the person who is dishonest in very small matters

is also dishonest in great ones.

If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth,

who will trust you with true wealth?

If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another,

who will give you what is yours?

No servant can serve two masters.

He will either hate one and love the other,

or be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and mammon."

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The Honest Lesson

from a Dishonest Steward

~ Rev. Frank A. Giuffre, S.S.L., S.T.D.

Professor of Biblical Studies, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary + Ambler, PA

This parable seems a mystery. Is this steward falsely accused? Does he give away his own profit when reducing invoices? Is this an exhortation to pursue good ends even by dishonest means?

Internal evidence betrays that the steward is corrupt and selfish. He never denies the charges against him. And the quickness with which he responds to his desperate traits by reducing credit seems to indicate gaining favor by cheating.

From the start, we must remember that this is not an allegory, but a parable, having a strong single point. Here that lesson is wise management of material goods resulting in eternal “security.” Like the farmer faced with a bumper crop in Luke 12:13–21, this steward asks, “What must I do?” Yet it is not what the steward does that is exemplary, but how it is done. With survival on the line, the steward industriously manages wealth to win a future home—to the master’s praise.

Jesus is showing us that we’re all stewards—trusted with both material and spiritual riches. What we choose to do with them shapes our destiny. Just like the steward in the parable, we’re called to handle temporary things with wisdom and intention

The virtue emphasized here is “shrewdness”—the same Greek word used to describe Joseph’s wise handling of Egypt’s grain reserves in (Gen 41:39), where his foresight helped save lives. It also describes Abigail’s (1 Sam 25:3) managing gifts to win over David and promote survival. Such savvy finds a way to take what could bring one down to bring one “up.”

The word for “dishonest wealth” means not funds gained corruptly, but material goods that could lead one astray if not “handled” correctly. In the end, the parable leaves us with a question only life can answer: will we become faithful stewards who use what we’ve been given—not for gain, but for good?

The Right Use of Wealth



~ Jeanette Williams

Our Lady of Sacred Heart+ Hilltown Twp, PA

The parable of the Unjust Steward has perplexed people over the centuries. Here we have a rich man’s steward who is losing his job for embezzling his master’s money. Thinking ahead, the steward starts to plan for his future by embezzling even more from his master and lining the pockets of the man’s debtors so that they will welcome him into their homes later. The rich man then praises him for his cleverness! What??

In reality, the guy wasn’t all that clever, because he got caught. Twice. But the point was that he planned ahead so that he would have friends who would give him a home when he was kicked out.

At the end of this strange story, Jesus warns us, “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” If that’s the case, then why does Jesus urge us to make friends through dishonest wealth—what my Bible translation strikingly refers to as “the mammon of wickedness”?

I think Jesus draws several lessons from this shocking parable. First, like the embezzler, we need to think ahead and plan for our future, the one that really matters. We should make the right kind of friends with money, those who will help us “be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Second, money is a “small matter” that God entrusts us with to see if we deserve “great ones.” Third, we have to choose who will be our master in this world – will we trust in money, or will we trust in God?

When my husband and I were raising our six children on his cabinetmaker’s salary, money was very tight, as you can imagine. But we lived within our means, and that included tithing. We believed that God gave us the money, so it’s really His. If we trust in Him financially and give Him back a portion of what He gave us, He always provides.