Several years ago while working at the Ryan’s Steakhouse in Columbia, Missouri, I had a lengthy conversation with a co-worker who happened to be Muslim. The conversation, that spanned our 4 hour shift in the dish room culminated in one thing, the key objection that he had to Christianity: Why does God need a Son? I was not long out of high school at the time, and it was years before I had any seminary education, so it was a question that stuck with me. The following week, on my next visit to the Newman Center, I asked the Sister who worked there the question that had been left burning in me: Why do we believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Her answer was one of the most frustrating answers I have ever received, “Because He is.” I could not get anything more than that out of her.
Our faith in God and in Christ is not a blind faith. There are reasons, proof, and experiences in our lives that convince us of this truth (this is what the Church calls Motives of Credibility, the motivation behind why we give credibility to the teaching that Jesus Christ is the Son of God). Neither is our faith empty, that the commands teachings that He has given us are random, personal preferences of a God who desires obedience for the sake of obedience. There is real Wisdom in what He has taught us; it truly is good advice to lead us to a better life. In the parable of the shrewd steward, I think that often times we can look at the shrewdness of the steward as his selfishness and something less than charity. He is only being kind to others because he is afraid that he will end up homeless. But if this were the case, why would the master of the house, and our Lord, praise the steward for selfishness? We have to look at the underlying act: the forgiveness of debts and sin.
This parable reminds us that we do not forgive simply because we have been told to forgive, but it truly is the way to life. The act of forgiveness itself is intrinsically good, even if our motives for doing it may not be pure or sincere. Forgiveness will bear good fruit. And we can carry this over to all of His teachings, and the teachings of the Church. They have not been given to us simply to test our obedience, but because they lead to life, they help us through times of distress, grief, confusion and every sort of heartache and pain that we experience; And will recover us from the damages of our sin.
In other words, in the day-to-day of things, our life will be better for it. Sometimes our Faith needs the reassurance that the teachings of our Lord are very practical, and to trust that even when we may not fully believe in them, that they will lead us into life.