Anyone else out there just not able to get today’s Gospel reading? I do plan to look this up and see if I can figure it out, but on face value, this Gospel passage seems quite cryptic to me. On one hand Jesus says, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” What does that mean?! And then He says, “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.” That doesn’t sound good for the one who makes friends with dishonest wealth, does it?
I was at St. Nicholas Parish in Evanston, IL today, and Cardinal Francis George was visiting and presided. He gave a nice homily, basically saying that all the characters in the Gospel today were “bad guys”, but that didn’t really clear up my confusion with the apparent contradiction in the reading. Maybe I’ve just been working too hard and my brain really is turning to mush…
Can anyone shed any light on this? If I get some time to figure it out, I’ll post back here to let you know what I find…
