Evening Collation

There was a rich man (Luke 16:1), et cetera.

As it was said today, in these words two persons are introduced: the person of the lord and the person of the steward. Some things have been said about the lord; now we will speak about the steward. And concerning the steward we can consider three things: (1) his task, (2) his abuse, and (3) the danger threatening him. We can consider his task because he was a steward, his abuse because he squandered the goods of his lord, and his peril because he was discredited.

1. I have said that stewards are managers, like angels (The higher angels help (illuminare) the lower (ST I.106.4), and angels help, serve, and guide (amministrare) corporeal creatures (ST I.110.1).) and people. (Genesis 1:28; cf. ST I-II.106.3, ad 3 (deservire).) And since we are people, let us say that the care for the regulation of the goods is commissioned to man. The Lord entrusts three things to man: (1.1) himself, (1.2) spiritual goods, and (1.3) exterior things.

1.1. First, I say, the Lord entrusts man to himself. A difference between mankind and all other [living creatures] is that God has given to man power over himself: a man can do of his own accord what he wants to, whereas other living creatures are moved by their natural instinct. Thus it says in Sirach 15:14: from the beginning God established man and he gave him up in the hand of his own plan. (The human being has a free will: ST I.83.1; I-II.10.4, which does not mean he should just do as he desires: Sirach 15:15–20; cf. ST I-II.91.4, ad 2 (God’s laws); I-II.104.1 (obedience to those who are higher).) If you have entrusted something to someone, you demand an account of him; if not, you don’t. If a lion kills a man, God does not punish the lion, because he has not entrusted responsibility for itself to a lion. The Apostle asks: does God care about cattle? (1 Cor 9:9) But God has entrusted man to himself. Therefore, he ought to render account to him. Thus we read in Sirach: walk in the way of your heart (Eccl 11:9), that is, according to the desires of your will, according to what you observe with your eyes, that is, according to your intellect, and know that for all these things the Lord will bring you to judgment.

1.2. Second, God has entrusted the spiritual goods to man, since man is able to use spiritual goods: (The virtues (ST I-II.55–67), the gifts (ST I-II.68), the beatitudes (ST I-II.69), and the gifts of the Holy Spirit (ST I-II.70).) he can use them in a good or in an evil way. Thus it says in the Gospel: someone who was setting out on a journey to a foreign land called his servants and gave them his goods (Matt 25:14), that is, the spiritual goods. And he said to them: trade with it until I come (Luke 19:13). If you have love, you can use it in a good or evil way, (See also note above in 1.2.2 on seeking first the Kingdom of God. Someone can love what is good but also what is evil, or someone can love what is good in an evil way. In the latter two cases the love is called “unordered” or “disordered”; cf. ST I.60.5; I-II.100.5, ad 1; and II-II.26.1–12.) but [eventually] you will have to render account of this. Hence the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 14:32: the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets and so eventually they must give account of it. Gregory states that when the gifts grow, the responsibilities for the gifts grow. (Gregory the Great, Homilies on the Gospels, bk. 1, homily 9, para. 1 (CCSL 141:58; PL 76:1106A); cf. Aquinas, In III Sent. 29.8, qa. 3, obj. 1; In IV Sent. 13.1.2, qa. 1, resp.)

1.3. Third, God has entrusted exterior goods to man, that we may use them, as the psalmist says: you have subdued all things under his feet (Ps 8:6), (DR: Psalm 8:8.) et cetera. Therefore, you ought to render account. If a certain lord has entrusted his goods to you, you ought to render account of those by the end of the year (cf. Luke 16:2). In the same way God demands at the end of your life an account of the things granted to you. Hence it is said against the evil ones in James 5:1: come now, you rich men, weep and cry out over the miseries that will come to you. And it continues: behold, the judge is standing at the door already (Jas 5:9). Now it is clear what is said about the steward.

2. Let us look at the abuse of the steward, which is mentioned where he says: he squandered his goods. (Luke 16:1.) So, in what way does the steward squander the goods of his lord? In three ways:

(2.1) first, by using them for himself;

(2.2) second, by keeping back things that did not belong to him;

(2.3) third, by a superfluous and prodigal diversion.

2.1. First, the steward squanders the goods of his lord by using them for himself. For instance, a steward to whom his lord has entrusted the house or other goods, would not want to hand the proceeds over to his lord, but would keep them for himself (cf. Matt 21:33–36); he would be called a thief. (Cf. ST II-II.66.2–3. Therefore, Thomas discusses theft as a sin against the virtue of justice, which is defined as giving to another what is due (ST II-II.58.1–3), and the virtue of liberality (ST II-II.58.9, ad 2).) God has entrusted you to yourself not in order to be your own, but that you may be his (cf. Rom 14:8) and that you seek God’s glory, not your own (cf. Prov 25:27 [Vg]). The Apostle says: I urge you: be eager to present yourself to God as an irreproachable worker who cannot be confounded (2 Tim 2:15). (Cf. ST II-II.129.7.) But some do not consider themselves servants of God, but free men. They say with Job 21:15: who is the Almighty, that we would serve him?

Likewise, if God has given you knowledge or virtue, to what purpose has he given it to you except that you may serve him and give him glory? Hence we read in Sirach 51:17: to the one who gives me wisdom I will give glory. (DR: Sirach 51:23.) Hilary says: almighty Father, I am aware that I owe this privileged task for my life to you, so that every word and thought of mine may speak of you. (Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity 1.37 (CCSL 62:35; PL 10:48C); cf. SCG I.2.) But others, of a different mindset, have said: our lips are ours; who is our lord? (Ps 12:5) From this way of thinking they want to oppose God and the faith when they know how to discuss and to read well, as we read in Isaiah 3:8: their speech and their ideas are against the Lord.

Likewise, God has given you riches, so that you may turn them into the honor of God (cf. Ps 145, 147). Thus David has said to him: everything is yours, and we have given to you the things we have received from your hand (1 Chr 29:14). Contrary to this, some hold that all things are theirs, not God’s. Job 22:17–18 reads: they have thought of the Almighty as someone who could not do anything, although he had filled their houses with good things. (Note that even the powers in the created world are from God: SCG II.3.) Isaiah 24:5: they have squandered the everlasting covenant, which contains that all creatures ought to exist for the glory of God. (Cf. Jeremiah 31:33, 1 Corinthians 10:31 (concretely: ST I-II.88.1, obj. 2; I-II.100.10, obj. 2; II-II.83.14).) So the steward squanders the goods of his lord by using them for himself.

2.2. It also happens that a steward or regulator squanders the goods of his lord by keeping back things that did not belong to him. Someone who ought to sell wine but would keep something back, so that he is corrupted (cf. Prov 11:26, Amos 8:5–6), squanders the goods of his lord by keeping back what is not due to him [the steward].

Taking care of yourself does not mean that you only think about yourself and only care about yourself. (Loving yourself, loving your neighbor: ST II-II.25.4–5 and 26.3–5.) Just as the eye is not made for itself alone, but so that it is of service to the whole body (cf. 1 Cor 12:21–26). A certain old man has said: because I am a human being, I consider nothing human alien to me. (In a play called Autotimus (act 1, scene 1) by Publius Terentius, a playwright from Carthage who lived from 190 to 158 BC.)

Likewise, you have received grace from God. Do you believe, therefore, that you have it in order to have it for yourself alone? Certainly not. Just as the sun does not have brightness for itself alone, but in order to pour it out for others, so God has given you grace, so that you may distribute it to others (cf. Matt 5:15–16, Rom 12:8). Hence St. Peter says: as each one has received grace, use it for one another as managers, as Christ’s good distributors (1 Pet 4:10). And the wise one says: I have learned [wisdom] without delusion, and I share it without envy (Wis 7:13). (See also Sermon 8, The Boy Jesus, section 3.2.3.)

Likewise, you ought to distribute temporal things to others; you should not have them for your own use. The Apostle says: tell the rich of this age not to be wise in a lofty way and to give easily (1 Tim 6:17). (DR: 1 Timothy 6:17–18.)

The Philosopher has said that those cities are the best in which things are privately owned, while the use of them is communal. (Aristotle, Politics 2.5, 1263a25–40; cf. Aquinas, Commentary on the Politics, bk. 2, lect. 4; ST I-II.105.2, resp.; II-II.66.2.) In Joel 1:17 it is said: the storehouses are squandered, because the wheat is mingled, meaning, to the letter: (Thomas distinguishes four senses, four layers in Scriptural texts: the historical or literal, the spiritual, the allegorical, and the moral or anagogical: ST I.1.10.) “is corrupted.”

And because of this it is said in the Letter of James 5:2–3: your riches have become wholly putrid; your garments are eaten by the moths; your gold and silver have rusted, and the rust of it will be a testimony against you.

Basil says: people usually say: ‘God is not just.’ Is God unjust because he is distributing things to us and does not give the same to everyone? (ST I.65.2, ad 3; also 47.2, obj. 3, ad 3.) Is God unjust? It is not unjust that a thing is unequally portioned out to us. Why, then, do you have abundance and does someone else beg, but that by distributing well you may obtain the reward of life, and that he may be crowned with the trophies of patience?

But are you not a looter by keeping for yourself the things entrusted to you to be distributed? It is the bread of the poor that you hold in your hand, the tunic of the nude which you keep in your room, the shoe of the unshod that decays in your possession; you have the silver of the needy that you have hidden underground. Regarding these things you could have given as much as your injustices are many. (Basil the Great, Homily 6, on Luke 12.18 (PG 31:276C–277A); cf. Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 12:18, ch. 12, lect. 5; this view has consequences for how we assess stealing out of necessity: ST II-II.66.2 and 7; 32.5, ad 2; 117.1, ad 1.)

2.3. Other stewards, or distributors, are distributors by being prodigal all around.

First they give themselves up to the devil for a mediocre delight. Against them we read in Proverbs 5:9: do not give your honors to a stranger and your years to someone cruel. (Cruelty is opposed to clemency: ST II-II.159.1. The devil is called cruel because, although it is in accordance with justice that mankind is enslaved by him, he is without devotion, compassion, etc.; cf. ST II-II.157.1, obj. 3; II-II.159.2, ad 2; III.46.3, ad 3.)

Others sell their grace if they have it (Cf. Proverbs 23:23; ST II-II.100.3–4.) for a favor of the public. Against them it is said: do not give what is sacred to the dogs (Matt 7:6). They give temporal things to stage-players, but they would not give anything to a good man. (On the question to whom we should give alms: ST II-II.32.5 and 9.) It is said against them: give to the just man and do not receive the sinner (Sir 12:4), that is, insofar as he is a sinner, in order not to favor him in his sin. We read that a prodigal son spent a part of his wealth by living a life of lustfulness (Luke 15:13). (On luxuria: ST II-II.153.) O, I wish that not so many would waste their soul!

It is clear now what was said about the steward’s task and his abuse. (The whole text of section 2 echoes 2 Corinthians 6:1 (and Heb 12:15): as his [God’s] co-operators we beseech you that you do not receive the grace of God in vain.)

3. Let us look at the danger that threatens the steward. We see a danger for this steward on three grounds:

(3.1) first, by reason of scandal; hence it is said that he was discredited (Luke 16:1]);

(3.2) second, by reason of the loss of his function; hence it says: you cannot be a steward anymore (Luke 16:2);

(3.3) third, we see the danger for the steward that he cannot help himself anymore; hence he said: I do not have the strength to dig, and I am ashamed to beg (Luke 16:3).

3.1. First, I say, we see the danger that threatens the steward or distributor, by reason of scandalization. Someone has possessed many goods. He dies. His sins do not remain hidden (cf. Matt 10:26). Who has discredited him? His conscience (Cf. ST II-II.33.7.) and the saints, as well as God himself, for whom all things are bare and open (Heb 4:13). (Cf. ST I.14.5–6.)

3.2. Likewise, we see the danger of the steward by reason of the loss of his function, because it is said to him: you cannot be a steward anymore. (Luke 16:2.) You have had knowledge and money. You die. You cannot have them anymore, as the psalmist says: when a rich man dies, he will not take all things with him (Ps 49:18), meaning: nothing. Job 1:21: I have come from my mother’s womb naked; I will return to it naked.

3.3. Maybe you will say: I will be able to acquire something for myself. Surely not, for you will not be able to help yourself. Hence he says: I do not have the strength to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. (Luke 16:3.) Because of this, it is said in Sirach: whatever your hand can do, do it immediately, because there is no work, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom with the inhabitants of the netherworld, whither you will hastily go (Eccl 9:10). Maybe you will say: I will ask the Blessed Virgin and the saints to help me. Certainly, that will not be the place and time for begging. (Cf. Matthew 7:21. Asking in prayer requires that your heart be with it: ST II-II.83.4, ad 2.) Hence it says: I am ashamed to beg. (Luke 16:3.) The foolish virgins wanted to beg, but nothing was given to them; but those who were ready entered with the groom into the wedding (Matt 25:10). (Cf. Asterius of Amasea, Homily 2, “De aeconomo iniquitatis” (PG 40:193A); Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 16:3, ch. 16, lect. 1.) So the steward is in danger.

4. But what is the remedy? (Thomas did not announce this fourth point. To conclude his homily he gives practical advice.) Who would have a case before a judge when he is accused and his offense is known? What would be the salutary counsel? I say that the salutary counsel would be the one that the king would give him, namely, if the king told him: do this, and you will be free (cf. 2 Kgs 5:10, Luke 10:28). This would be the salutary counsel. Christ gives you the counsel. When people are discredited and can no longer be stewards, and they can neither dig nor beg, they ought to do what Christ recommends, who says: make friends for yourselves with the mammon of iniquity, so that, when you are wanting, they may receive you in eternal tents (Luke 16:9). But what is this counsel about the mammon? This is the same counsel that Daniel gave to Nebuchadnezzar, saying: may my counsel be pleasing to you, O King: buy off your sins through almsgiving (Dan 4:24).

He says: with the mammon of iniquity. Should we then give to the poor from unjust riches, as from theft? (Cf. ST II-II.32.7; II-II.66.8.) Certainly not, because Augustine says in On the Word of the Lord: do not conceive of such a Lord as a man whom you would despise. (Augustine, Sermon 113, ch. 2 (PL 38:649); cf. Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 16:3, ch. 16, lect. 1.) And the Lord says: I hate robbery in the camp (Isa 61:8).

We usually explain or understand the expression with the mammon of iniquity in four ways.

4.1. Basil explains it in one way, saying that the Lord says mammon of iniquity (Cf. Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 16:9, ch. 16, lect. 2: Basilius: vel si successeris patrimonio, ab iniustis congregata cepisti : in pluribus enim predecessoribus necesse est aliquem reperiri qui iniuste usurpauerit aliena, “Basil: or if you have succeeded to a patrimony, you receive what has been amassed by the unrighteous; for in a number of predecessors someone must needs be found who has unjustly usurped the property of others”; ST II-II.32.7, ad 1.) because riches are iniquities. For it rarely occurs that someone has riches which one of his ancestors has not acquired unjustly.

4.2. Augustine says that riches are called the mammon of iniquity (Augustine, Questions on the Gospels, bk. 2, ch. 34 (CCSL 44B:85; PL 35:1349): mammona vero iniquitatis ob hoc a domino appellata est . . . quia mammona divitiae interpretantur, nec sunt istae divitiae nisi iniquis, qui in eis constituunt spem atque copiam beatitudinis suae, “but it is called the unrighteous mammon by the Lord for this reason . . . that mammon is interpreted to mean riches; nor do these riches exist without sin, when anyone places in them his hope and the sum of his happiness”; cf. Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 16:9, ch. 16, lect. 2; ST II-II.32.7, ad 1.) because an unjust man values these riches highly.

4.3. Or riches are called mammon of iniquity because they lead to iniquity. (Therefore, it was becoming that Christ, who goes before us leading a virtuous life, lived in poverty (although he himself could not have sinned; cf. ST III.15.5, ad 1; III.22.4, ad 1): ST III.40.3, ad 1; Ambrose, Commentary on Luke, bk. 7, para. 245 (CCSL 14:297; PL 15:1764B): pulchre autem iniquum mamona dixit, quia variis divitiarum inlecebris nostros avaritia temtabat adfectus, ut vellemus servire divitiis, “now well did he call it unrighteous mammon, because greed tempts our affections with the allurement of various riches”; Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 16:9, ch. 16, lect. 2: vel iniqum mammona dixit quia variis divitiarum illecebris nostras avaritias temptat affectus ut velimus servire divitiis, “or he spoke of the unrighteous mammon because by the various enticements of riches covetousness corrupts our hearts, that we may be willing to obey riches.”)

4.4. Chrysostom says that riches are called mammon of iniquity because you have kept them for yourself unjustly. (It is actually: Theophylact, Commentary on Luke 16 (PG 123:965); cf. Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 16:9, ch. 16, lect. 2: illae ergo dicuntur opes nequitiae quascumque dominus . . . , “those then are called the riches of unrighteousness which the Lord has given for the necessities of our brethren and fellow-servants, but we spend upon ourselves”; cf. ST II-II.66.2.) Do you have 20 or 40 pounds (The libra aurea: the Roman pound.) of income in storage now? At least when you die you would distribute it.

And to whom should [these riches] be given, then? Some are worried about themselves with regard to their reputation. Christ says: so that, when you are wanting, they may receive you in eternal tents. (Luke 16:9.) Augustine connects the two words of Christ and of the steward: the steward says: so that when I am removed, they may receive me in their homes (Luke 16:4), (Augustine, Sermon 113, ch. 1 (PL 38:648).) whereas the Lord says: in eternal tents (Luke 16:9). Therefore, we ought to distribute [our riches] to the ones of whom the eternal tents are. Augustine says: who else are those of whom the eternal tents are than the saints of God? And who else are the ones that are received by them in the eternal tents than they who serve their needs and give to them with gladness what they lack? (Augustine, Sermon 113, ch. 1 (PL 38:648); cf. Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 16:9, ch. 16, lect. 2: qui sunt enim qui habebunt tabernacula . . . , “for who are they that shall have everlasting habitations but the saints of God? And who are they that are to be received by them into everlasting habitations but they who administer to their want, and whatsoever they have need of, gladly supply.”) These are Christ’s little ones, who, after leaving everything behind, have followed him (Luke 5:11). (Cf. Matthew 4:20; Luke 5:28.)

Must, then, alms be given to sinners? (Cf. ST II-II.32.9, ad 1 and 2.) I say that, all other things being equal, it is better to give to a just man than to a sinner, because by giving to a just man you do a work that is meritorious and in a similar way the work of the one who receives is. But this is not so in the case of a sinner; indeed, only the work you do is meritorious, but not what he does. Chrysostom says: almsgiving is the most powerful art of the arts, because it does not build houses for us made of mud (cf. Job 4:19); for us it is a spending for everlasting life. (Cf. Niketas, Catena on Luke; Chrysostom, Homily on Matthew 52 [53] (PG 58:522); Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke, at 16:9, ch. 16, lect. 2: ars igitur artium potissima . . . , “the most powerful [alt., skillful, peritissima] then of all arts is that of almsgiving”; ST II-II.32.4.) And that this may be fulfilled for us by him who, et cetera.