Today's parable from the gospel of a Luke is challenging and sometimes difficult to understand. While the steward is recognized as being quite clever, he is looking out for himself, and no one else. Yes, the man who owed the steward's master must have been happy for the reduction of their debt. The steward lowers their payment because he wants to have some people to turn to when he is fired. At the very end of the parable, we find insight into its meeting: “… no servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”
In an age of 401K or other individual retirement accounts, Jesus is warning against stockpiling wealth or achieving it dishonestly. Against the legitimate need to prepare for retirement are the demands of justice. Many mutual funds and other investments commonly used to increase wealth for retirement invest in companies whose actions are contrary to the gospel.
Did you know that the U.S. Catholic bishops have guidelines for how the Church invests its financial resources? These guidelines, updated in 2021, help ensure that our money is managed wisely and in line with our Catholic faith.
The bishops remind us that investment is a form of stewardship. It has two parts:
Financial Stewardship: The Church must be responsible with its resources, making investments that are sound and provide a reasonable return to support ministries.
Ethical Stewardship: At the same time, investments should reflect Gospel values, respect human dignity, and protect God’s creation.
The bishops suggest three ways to put this into practice:
Avoid doing harm: The Church avoids investing in companies whose products or practices contradict Catholic teaching. (For example: companies involved in abortion, pornography, or exploitative labor.)
Work for change: When possible, the Church uses its voice as a shareholder to encourage businesses to act more responsibly and respect human dignity.
Promote the common good: The Church looks for opportunities to invest in efforts that make a positive difference, such as affordable housing, renewable energy, fair labor, and access to medicine.
In this way, our Church strives to make sure that financial decisions are also moral decisions. Every dollar can be used not only to support the Church’s mission, but also to reflect our faith in action.
Be assured that all the monies that Corpus Christi has in endowed funds follow the guidelines from the USCCB for socially responsible investing.
How much of your time and energy is invested in managing wealth and property? How much do your finances affect your state of mind? With a very honest examination of conscience, we can begin to see more clearly our relationship with money and identify actions to shift our priorities towards discipleship.
God bless,
