People are worth more than things and wealth should be used to enhance and develop relationships, Pope Francis said yesterday.
Delivering the Angelus at St Peter's, Rome the Pope took as his text Jesus' parable of the dishonest steward in Luke 16. The steward is accused of having squandered his master’s goods and is about to be fired.
The steward's response is not to justify his actions or blame others, but to find a "cunning" way out by stealing from his master for the last time, said Pope Francis.
"In fact, he summons the debtors and reduces the debts they have with their master, to make them friends and then be recompensed by them. This is to make friends with corruption and to obtain gratitude with corruption as, unfortunately, is usual today."
Pope Francis admitted this message can seem "confusing".
He explained: "Jesus gives this example certainly not to exhort to dishonesty, but to shrewdness. In fact, he stresses: 'The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness,' namely, with that mixture of intelligence and cunning that enables one to surmount difficult situations.
"The key to the reading of this account lies in Jesus’ invitation at the end of the parable: 'Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal habitations.' This seems a bit confusing, but it isn’t."
He repeated his oft-stated view of money: "Unrighteous mammon” is money — also called the devil’s dung — and material goods in general. Wealth can push one to erect walls, to create divisions and discriminations. Jesus, on the contrary, invites his disciples to reverse the course: 'Make friends with wealth.'
Pope Francis said: "It’s an invitation to be able to transform goods and riches into relationships, because people are worth more than things and count more than the riches possessed. In life, in fact, he who has many riches doesn’t bear fruit, but he who creates and keeps alive many bonds, many relationships, many friendships through the diverse 'riches', namely, the different gifts with which God has endowed him."
He continued: "In face of our faults and failings, Jesus assures us that we are always in time to heal with goodness the evil done."
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