Sunday Homily, 21 September 2025 - Fr Paul Rowse, OP

You’ll be pleased to know there’s no character in the Lord’s parable worth imitating just as they are.  We have to take the best attributes of each one: the rich man's wise judgment, the unjust steward's shrewd generosity, and the debtors' conspiracy to improve the situation.

Otherwise, this is one of those moments when we Christians are left scratching our heads: to do good must I do evil?  The parable isn’t a puzzle, but does require us to learn from the best of each character.

We had an old friar who would usually distance himself from discussion about our financials: “I leave that to others,” he used to say.

The Scriptures are littered with warnings about money and greed, usury and wealth.  The example too given by the Lord has caused many a debate through the centuries.  The Lord had no wallet but left it to Judas to be responsible for all thirteen of them.

From this, must we surmise that Christians have nothing to do with money?

But here is the Lord saying we should use money for a specific purpose: to win friends.  It’s not a stretch of the text for us to read: use money to make new friends.

So long as we’re wisely in control of money and not it of us, and we use our money shrewdly to improve the situation of others, we needn’t fear it.  We needn’t throw up our hands at the first sign of it.

Tainted though it is, as the Lord says, money can win us friends if we stay in control.

How do we know if we’re being controlled by money?

If it’s tied to our sense of self-worth,

If it’s the reason we’re isolated from others,

If it’s the reason we’re not generous towards those who are deserving,

then we’ve lost sight of what is of great value to God: his human creation.

So, the Lord’s parable is showing us how to live in a world not of our making:

fear God, and use money rather than people.

Fr Paul Rowse, OP Parish Priest