Fr. Paul Scalia on Holy Shrewdness

"Many Catholics misunderstand our Lord's parables. We fall into a saccharine piety, thinking of them as fables, nice down-to-earth stories that teach religious lessons. This, by the way, accounts for a great deal of bad preaching. Suffering this superficial view of the parables, many priests think they can imitate the Master. Thus the banal personal stories or movie and cultural references that supposedly illustrate divine truths but in fact only empty them of significance.

"In fact, Jesus' parables always have more depth than a first - or second or third - reading reveals. Far from being merely homespun wisdom, they often contain a twist or a shock to upend conventional thinking.

"Particularly in Saint Luke's Gospel our Lord gives us some puzzling parables. Thus far in the Sunday reading of Luke, we have heard about a hated foreigner who was better than Israel's finest (Lk 10), cynical social advice on how to get ahead (Lk 14), and a shepherd with poor accounting skills (Lk 15). We will later hear about the unjust judge and the pious publican (Lk 18). The incongruity of these stories is meant stun us, precisely so that we will pay better attention to our Lord's teaching."

In a recent commentary, Father Paul D. Scalia, Episcopal Vicar for Clergy for the Diocese of Arlington (Virginia), reflected on Jesus' presentation of shrewdness as exemplified in the Parable of the Unjust Steward and the importance of the faithful being as practical in striving for heavenly glory as the unfaithful are for worldly comfort.

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The Catholic Thing: Holy Shrewdness (22 SEP 19)