Romans 15:14-21 / Luke 16:1-8
When God created mankind, He created them in His image. Hence it is with goodness that God created each and every person.
It is with the goodness of God that is within that each person that will hear the call to holiness and live life in the ways of God.
In the 1st reading, St. Paul affirmed the Romans that they are full of good intentions and perfectly well instructed and able to advise each other.
Yet he also said that he had put some things rather strongly, so as to refresh their memories.
The need to refresh their memories was that people have rather short memories about truth and teaching and they need to be reminded, lest complacency makes them forget about it all together.
When the truth and the teachings of Jesus are reiterated, then people will be reminded of who they are, of who their Creator is, and what they are called to be.
Otherwise, the ways of the world will slowly corrode our hearts and we will tend to lean towards the thinking and the ways of the world, even though we call ourselves Christians.
In the gospel, Jesus told a parable that exposes this corrosion and decay. The steward had recourse to the thinking and the ways of the world so as to ensure his security for the future.
Yet for us, we know that our future, whether early or eternal, lies in the hands of God our Creator.
Our thoughts must spring from the goodness that God has put within us, and our ways must be that of truth and love.