25 Ordinary - C - 2007
Luke 16:1-13
September 23, 2007
Fr. Carl McCarthy

          Life can be shocking.  The guy who never wins anything plays the lottery and becomes the multi-million dollar winner. Shocking!  The parents who seem to have the perfect child learn that their child has been sneaking out at night to go drinking with friends. Shocking! When you go to the beauty shop for a haircut, you tell the stylist how much you want cut, but when the stylist finishes, you discover you’ve been scalped when you look in the mirror. Shocking! The father who eats right, exercises and has never smoked is diagnosed with heart disease. Shocking!  In this Gospel, Jesus commends the steward for being dishonest but shrewd in matters of finance. Jesus is supposed to respond this way. He does not commend dishonesty. He commends honesty. Shocking!

We should overcome our shock at Jesus’ response because it really doesn’t matter whether the steward is guilty or not. What matters is that the people of this world are very clever at finding loopholes to gain financial success. We read in the paper and hear in the news all the time that people outsmart the system. And all the while, those who call themselves Christian, whose desire is the Kingdom, often take a back seat to making the Gospel known in our day and time.

If we work so hard at gaining earthly goods, then how can we be so lax when it comes to gaining the Kingdom?  It is shocking! And that’s the shocking point that Jesus wanted to make with his disciples and to all who follow him -- that we must work and be clever when it comes to sharing in God.

Jesus calls us to tap into our cleverness, our skills and our ingenuity, just as the shrewd steward did, so that we can make the kingdom of God and the Good News known today.

Recently I came across this story that speaks of this type of Gospel cleverness. Some 30 years ago, a gentleman by the name of Om Shurma and his wife, Krishna, came to New York City from India to make a new life for themselves.  For some time, they could get only odd jobs, but finally Mr. Shurma went to work as a cab driver. Seven years later, he and his wife had saved enough money to buy his own cab. This meant that he was no longer obligated to give half of his money to the fleet owner, and he saw his income triple.

Now the question became, what would they do with all their wealth?  He was a very spiritual man, and he had little need for possessions. So, he and his wife decided to share their good fortune with the village they had left behind.  They returned to their native village in India, with $3,000, and they opened the first school for girls in the village. The Ram Kali School for Girls, named after his mother, opened with almost 200 students in grades one through five.

The interesting thing is that in New York, the Sharmas are struggling immigrants.  But in their Indian village, they are rich.  Mrs. Sharma said, “In New York I am worthless, but in India I am everything.”

Today this couple continues to live very frugally in New York. With his salary as a cab driver and hers as an oncology nurse, they continue to fund the school, as well as other projects, including a medical and dental clinic. Plus they are putting their two sons through St. John’s University.

What keeps the Sharmas going?  They say, “When we die, this material world is not going to be with us. Only the good deeds we leave behind will remain with us.” Shocking to think about what one couple can do.