Sept. 12, 2004

The king’s gambit

The forgiving father in the story of the Prodigal Son is no pushover.

Sept. 12, 2004, 24th Sunday in ordinary time
Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-32

Every so often you see someone make a decision that seems to be a gross mistake, only to find out later how sly a move it really was. This often happens in chess when a master player baits a less-experienced player by placing an unguarded piece where it can be taken without retaliation. As soon as the piece is taken, however, the way has been opened for the expert to checkmate his opponent. It happens regularly in business when a solid corporation pays millions for a smaller, failing company. The sale looks silly on paper until the news comes out that the larger firm had, in the process, acquired a patent they needed to finish work on a new product that will make them billions.

In the Exodus story God seems to be giving in to Moses. The people had made the golden calf and were worshiping it instead of God. The Lord seems to tell Moses that he will destroy the Israelites and start over again with Moses. When Moses brings up Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God relents. God seems to have lost the negotiation. But look at what really transpired. God did not have to waste another thousand years starting again from scratch. Without lifting a finger, he received back his people, who became both repentant and docile. God won, hands down.

The Gospel bears out this strategy. Luke presents a number of parables on finding things. The last of these is the Prodigal Son story, in which the father may seem like a pushover, giving in to his ne’er-do-well younger son. Even the older son thinks that way. But the father is smarter than he appears. From Jesus’ story the father never had his son’s love. So, cleverly, he gives that egotistical offspring all he wants. And then he waits. Lo and behold, at about the time he expected him back, the father watches as that son comes timidly home with repentance and newfound appreciation. The father is a winner and always was.

That’s why he is like the shepherd who got back his lost sheep and the woman who found her lost coin. He proves to have been very wise. Now he is very happy. And so can we be when we employ God’s tactics, sacrificing the moment for ultimate victory.

One problem, two answers

People of faith should be as smart and fearless as evildoers.

Sept. 19, 2004, 25th Sunday in ordinary time
Amos 8:4-7
Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8
1 Timothy 2:1-8
Luke 16:1-13

Today’s first reading, from the Book of the Prophet Amos, gives us a rich glimpse into the daily life of Judea in the eighth century b.c. Interestingly, we see merchants gypping their customers by “tipping the scales” their way. Businessmen were trying to get more work done while paying less to their workers until they literally became slaves. The Sabbath rest meant nothing to dealers who couldn’t stand closing down one day a week. Amos decried that so few took religion seriously.

Things didn’t change much in the 780 years between Amos’s prophesy and Jesus’ public ministry. Our Lord matter of factly relates the story of a manager who robs his boss blind after he is accused of shady practices. The point in the Gospel, however, is far different than in the Old Testament.

Amos railed against the swindlers of his time who had changed the people of God into gangs of thieves. On the other hand, Jesus offered the “material men and women” of his day a backhanded compliment. In Jesus’ parable the boss praises his soon-to-be-ex-employee for his evil machinations. There is an important message in that rather paradoxical moral to the story.

Our ears should be opening wide when we hear praise for double-dealing and cheating. Certainly Jesus is not condoning such action. What he is doing is beginning to solve Amos’s problem in a directly opposite way.

Amos spoke directly to the perpetrators of the evils that were destroying the essence of Old Testament faith. He didn’t succeed. Things only got worse until the whole country, having driven itself to ruin, was wiped out by the Babylonians. Jesus’ way was to speak to the religious people. They were the ones letting him down. Why couldn’t they become as smart and as fearless as those who lived only for wealth?

Accordingly, Jesus called forth the good. He taught them what to live for. He gave them hope. He eventually sent them the Holy Spirit so that they might be energized. With this enthusiasm they would win over the corrupt to righteousness and to the joy of living a life of love.

We are the people he called. We are the answer to the problems of our contemporary world. All we need is to put the Lord’s way into practice.

Father Brando is pastor of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish in Cleveland.

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