“Honesty vs Dishonesty”
25th Sunday in Ordinary Tim – C
In today’s readings we hear about honesty and integrity and decency. In the first reading we are told not to cheat the poor, not to steal from those who can least afford it, not to take advantage of those who are already down on their luck. You’d think that would be obvious, but it wasn’t then, and it isn’t now. We already know that we shouldn’t cheat or steal from anyone. We already know that we shouldn’t take advantage of the vulnerable, but people have and still do. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now.
The psalm tells us to pray for those in power that they might be good leaders to all their people and protect those who are vulnerable. The job of our leaders is to protect their people and assure they are safe and treated decently.
The word that is translated “dishonest” is really a more general term which means he was a selfish, self-centered individual who didn’t care about God’s ways. We see this even today. It seems that the more people that move further away from God grow more selfish and more individualistic, and don’t care about God’s ways.
Unfortunately, not everyone acts decently and appropriately. Unfortunately, some people, even some leaders do take advantage of the vulnerable. And that behavior needs to be called out and dealt with appropriately. People who cannot be trusted in a small matter have not proven themselves trustworthy. If someone would steal a small thing, they would surely steal something bigger. If they can’t be trusted in a small matter, how could they be trusted for something larger, and more important. Someone who would take advantage of a vulnerable person for their own means could not be trusted to treat a ‘more important’ person appropriately. Because who is more important? Our job is to treat all God’s people decently and appropriately and take proper care of all God’s creation. God has given us the gift of Free Will, so that we can choose the good, not to cheat and mistreat the vulnerable.
We are called, as followers of Christ to be stewards of the time, the talents, and the material resources that we’ve been given. Through the gift of Free Will, we’re the ones who decide how best to use those gifts. We can take advantage of others, we can waste the resources or use them to serve only ourselves, or we can use them in a way that pleases the Lord and builds up the kingdom.
We must always remember that this life is only temporary (important as it may be), but the next life will last forever. If we decide to think seriously about it when we get more time, we run the very real risk that we will run out of time.