Amos 8:4-7/ 1 Timothy 2:1-8/ Luke 16:1-13
There are some phrases that we can just remember easily, and they come from various sources.
It’s not as difficult as that game show “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” because these are phrases that we heard since young and they are easy to remember.
For example, “Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall” and we can easily continue with “Humpty Dumpty had a great fall” (It’s from a nursery rhyme).
And how about this: Mirror, mirror on the wall…who’s the fairest of them all? And that is from the fairy tale “Snow White”.
That popular phrase was from the evil queen who had a magic mirror and she would ask the mirror “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
And the mirror would reply: You, O queen, are the fairest of them all.
All was well until one day, when she asked the mirror that question and she was shocked to hear this reply: Snow white is fairer than you, O queen, and she is the fairest of them all.
And of course we know how the story went on from there, with the 7 dwarfs coming in.
Well, we don’t talk to mirrors (or maybe we do?) but we will surely look at the mirror whenever we have the opportunity.
Whether we do it out of necessity or out of vanity, we look into the mirror so as to get something out of it.
We want the mirror to “tell” us how we look like, and from the mirror, we will also know what we want to look like.
In other words, when we look at the mirror, we want to get something out of it.
But it is not only from the mirror that we want to “get something”.
The greedy tendency in us will always make us ask this question: What can I get out of it?
So we will tend to ask: What can I get out of my job/company? What can I get out of the people working under me? What can I get out of my friends/children/spouse?
In today’s gospel, the dishonest steward knew what he could get from his master and he went about with dishonest gains from his
master.
But as it is, dishonesty will be discovered, sooner or later, and the dishonesty steward was to be removed from his job.
But instead of repenting, that dishonest steward turned to his master’s debtors and now he was looking at what he could get from them.
He went about securing their favours with yet more dishonest means at his master’s expense.
Yes, that dishonest steward was very shrewd and crafty.
He knew where to look, how to look, and who to look, in order to get something and to gain something.
And even his master, whom he had cheated, was impressed with his astuteness.
Jesus told us such an astounding parable to show us this – when it comes to gaining an advantage, the people of this world will spare no effort to get what they want and to feed their greed.
And the 1st reading shows how people may be practicing religion, and yet at the same time they were also looking forward to swindling and cheating.
What was disgusting was that it was the rich and the greedy who were cheating and trampling on the poor and needy.
Essentially, it was the same old human story – we look at others to see what we can get from them, to see what we can gain from them.
And the greedy tendency can even make people go so far as to cheat and trample upon the poor and the needy.
Here we get another famous saying: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
And the Lord says this in the first reading: Never will I forget a single thing you have done. (That is something that we must not forget!)
Yes, for better or for worse, the Lord God never forgets.
It is said that elephants have a good memory and they also seem to never forget.
There is this incredible but true story of the elephant’s memory.
We may not remember or know who Lawrence Anthony was.
He was a legend in South Africa. He bravely rescued wildlife and rehabilitated elephants all over the world from human atrocities, including the courageous rescue of Baghdad Zoo animals during the US invasion in 2003.
On March 7, 2012, Lawrence Anthony died. He is remembered and missed by his wife, his 2 sons and his 2 grandsons, and by the elephants he had rescued.
Two days after his passing, the elephants that he rescued showed up at his home.
They came to say goodbye to their “man-friend”.
A total of 31 elephants had walked over 12 miles to get to his South African home.
The people who witnessed this were awed by the sense of those elephants over the passing of Lawrence Anthony.
They were also awed by the profound memory and emotion those elephants had for their friend.
The elephants obviously wanted to pay their respects and honour their friend who had saved their lives.
They came, stayed for two days and two nights, without eating anything, and then they left. Incredible but true story.
Yes, the elephant remembers. The poor and the needy will also remember when we help them.
People will also remember how we look at them, whether out of greed, or to help them in their need.
And the Lord will also remember. Like the elephants He created, He will never forget! May we also not forget this.