FAITHFULNESS IN SERVICE
HOMILY FOR TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY C3
Readings: Amos 8:4-7; psalm 113:1bc-2, 4-6, 7-8; I timothy 2:1-8, Luke 16:1-13
By Rev. Fr Solomon Patrick Zaku
Chinua Achebe, in his little book, The Trouble with Nigeria, stated simply that the trouble with Nigeria is its leadership. No one has disputed this claim almost 39 years ago. Rather, there are more additional supports for this as reality is proven beyond all reasonable doubt that it is the leadership which brings more trouble than is expected. Today, many people are saying that the leaders have taught the followers. We can say that the trouble with Nigeria is its followership too. But the truth of the matter is that, it is the combination of leadership and followership which has brought Nigeria to its knees.
Although many called Nigeria the giant of Africa in terms of population, some today are calling Nigeria, ‘a crippled Giant’, or ‘a Giant with legs with clay’. Some social analysts claim that ‘we are dancing on wet graves’.
In the first reading, taken from the prophecy of Amos, God warns the rich, the leaders who trampled down the poor, marginalised them and sold them for a pair of sandals. They used false measures to exploit the poor and the needy despite their claims to be religious people. They prayed but their prayers, like ours today in Nigeria, do not go beyond the roofs of the churches or the mosques. We are full of evil and hypocrisy.
If we read the book of the prophecy of Amos, God spoke with strong voice and gave warning and told the rich what would happen to them if they did not repent.
Of course, the leadership of Nigeria takes the lion share of the problem; the followers too have some percentage of the blame.
What keeps surprising me today in Nigeria is the reality that after much prayer to God to give us something to do or job, after he has given us, we either look down upon it or we do not do the work that has been given to us to do. Some become nonchalant and others do not even go to work. But amid all these, we desire to be paid at the end of the month.
For example, one goes to the banks in the middle of the month and sees that they are almost empty. But go banks at the end of the month, you see they are crowded and filled to the brim. But if one were to go to the workplaces, in the middle of the month, one sees that so many people do not go to work. They are waiting at home or are at their private businesses and are waiting for Government’s salary at the end of the month.
Our Governments are accused of being unjust and wicked, the workers too can be accused of being unjust and wicked. If, after employment, you do not go to work, and you receive salary for what you did not work for, is that right, is that just?
In the gospel, Jesus tells us a story of a rich man who employs another person to manage his business. The rich person made the person his manager. But the manager becomes wasteful. Other people see how this manager wastes away his master’s resources and report him to his master. What does the master do? He calls the steward or manager to question. He asks the manager to quit based on the accusation of wastefulness of resources. True to his craftiness, the manager seeing that his manager-ship has come to an end decides to cheat the Master further. He begins to think to himself that now his stewardship is over. What shall he do? He admits that he is not strong to work and he is ashamed to beg. So, in order to gain acceptance in people’s houses after being sacked, he calls all those who owe his master. He calls one and the person says that he owes hundred measures of oils. The crafty manager says to his master’s debtor, ‘You don’t need to pay all. Reduce it to fifty. We can share the fifty together, the two of us later.’ He calls another and that person says that he owes hundred measures of wheat. The manager asks him to reduce it to eighty. They will share the twenty later.
Using the dishonest steward in the gospel, let us see analyse and see how we are different or better than he as Nigerians:
Corruption: ‘Whistle Blowers’ reported to the rich man the wasteful attitude of his manager. The employer wastes no time and investigates. He finds that the accusation is true and he acts by dismissing the wasteful manager.
‘There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought o him that this man was wasting his goods.’ Give me account of your stewardship because you are no longer my steward.
Wastefulness of national or regional or collective or private resources is corruption. Everything we have is given to us by God or others in trust. If we waste them on our pleasures, personal aggrandizement, travels, shows –buying of cars or building of houses and or elephant projects, we are being wasteful and corrupt. Any form of extravagance with the resources of government to fuel crises and at the same clamming to quell such crises is corruption.
Have we been entrusted with managing resources? How did we or do we manage such resources? Were we dishonest or honest in such matters?
Craftiness/dishonesty: The Manager says to himself: what hall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship. So, summoning his masters’ debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my mater?’ he said, ‘a hundred measure of oil.’ Write that you owe fifty.’ To the second, ‘how much do you owe?’ The debtor said, ‘a hundred measure of wheat.’ He told him to cancel twenty out, remaining eighty.
Do we give employment to others even when they were not quantified so that when we retire, these people will ‘cover us’ or take us to their houses?
Laziness/Shame: Many of us are lazy to work. We prefer, even after graduation, to roam about with photocopies of certificates from one secretariat to the other looking for employments. We prefer to go to churches that tell us to pray only and all shall be well with us. We deceive ourselves thinking that we shall be as rich as the pastors who tell us to pray only by going those churches. Unknown to you, these pastors send their children to the best of schools abroad and use you, the lazy ones to enrich themselves.
We are in a nation of irony. We spend all the day praying for success without working to succeed. We are lazy and we celebrate laziness and mediocrity. Little wonder, we prefer to go into politics instead of the area we have studied. Why? We do not want to stress our brains. Why strain our brains while we have oil wells? It seems that our studies have stealing of government property as their end. We study to steal later and enrich ourselves by the craft of graft.
Wickedness: We are growing gradually from corruption to dishonesty and from dishonesty to wickedness. We are deliberately wicked today. We are wicked to government and to each other. Ogas are wicked to their apprentices and apprentices are wicked to their ogas. Husbands are wicked to their wives and wives are wicked to their husbands. We are in a nation of do-me-and-I-do-you-God-no-go-vest situation. Each is trying to destroy the progress of the other and that is why our wickedness is making go in an endless spiral of evil or vicious circle. There is so much motion in our systems without movement because we are just wicked to each other.
Injustice: The manager of the rich mas was not just and sincere. He was wasteful with the resources of the owner. That is unjust. He did not give the owner what was his due. Government workers claim that government is not just to them when they are not paid. But did they work to generate money to pay them in all honesty? Are they sincere in working? Someone once defines civil service as a system in which ‘the employer is trying and struggling to steal the employee and the employee is trying and struggling to steal the employer.’ Employers are wicked to their employees and the employees are wicked to their employers.
I believe strongly that if the workers put in their best in working for government, their primary employer, as they do with their private businesses, they will be paid as at when due. They will demand what is their due without fear and government will pay them because they have given all their sweat and blood to generate money for the government. So, the government is not foolish – it is operating on the principle of ‘no work, no pay.’ And since we know we are not doing the right thing, we only complain and do nothing about our miserable conditions in life.
Insecurity: The manager, because of his corruption, dishonesty, laziness, wickedness and injustice, became insecure of his future. We know that whatever you sow, that you shall reap. So, the manager becomes fearful and insecure. He plots to secure a future with the debtors of his masters. A wicked man has no future. He will still go and deceive them and he will be sent away. His security is in the flesh and not in heaven or God.
Today we are called to be faithful in all we do. Jesus says to us, “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” This is because it is God who has given us what we are doing. From the smallest to the biggest of works that we are doing, we should note that it is God who has given us such work and he expects us to do it faithfully.
There is no better way or alternative way to progress and success than being frugal, industrious, responsible, just and accountable. Each of us is called to do this and we shall be faithful in our following of Christ.
As just the second reading calls us, ‘Beloved: first of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we many lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’.
As we receive the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, we pray that Jesus will be in us and we in him so that we shall be faithful in all we do!
Readings: Amos 8:4-7; psalm 113:1bc-2, 4-6, 7-8; I timothy 2:1-8, Luke 16:1-13
By Rev. Fr Solomon Patrick Zaku
Chinua Achebe, in his little book, The Trouble with Nigeria, stated simply that the trouble with Nigeria is its leadership. No one has disputed this claim almost 39 years ago. Rather, there are more additional supports for this as reality is proven beyond all reasonable doubt that it is the leadership which brings more trouble than is expected. Today, many people are saying that the leaders have taught the followers. We can say that the trouble with Nigeria is its followership too. But the truth of the matter is that, it is the combination of leadership and followership which has brought Nigeria to its knees.
Although many called Nigeria the giant of Africa in terms of population, some today are calling Nigeria, ‘a crippled Giant’, or ‘a Giant with legs with clay’. Some social analysts claim that ‘we are dancing on wet graves’.
In the first reading, taken from the prophecy of Amos, God warns the rich, the leaders who trampled down the poor, marginalised them and sold them for a pair of sandals. They used false measures to exploit the poor and the needy despite their claims to be religious people. They prayed but their prayers, like ours today in Nigeria, do not go beyond the roofs of the churches or the mosques. We are full of evil and hypocrisy.
If we read the book of the prophecy of Amos, God spoke with strong voice and gave warning and told the rich what would happen to them if they did not repent.
Of course, the leadership of Nigeria takes the lion share of the problem; the followers too have some percentage of the blame.
What keeps surprising me today in Nigeria is the reality that after much prayer to God to give us something to do or job, after he has given us, we either look down upon it or we do not do the work that has been given to us to do. Some become nonchalant and others do not even go to work. But amid all these, we desire to be paid at the end of the month.
For example, one goes to the banks in the middle of the month and sees that they are almost empty. But go banks at the end of the month, you see they are crowded and filled to the brim. But if one were to go to the workplaces, in the middle of the month, one sees that so many people do not go to work. They are waiting at home or are at their private businesses and are waiting for Government’s salary at the end of the month.
Our Governments are accused of being unjust and wicked, the workers too can be accused of being unjust and wicked. If, after employment, you do not go to work, and you receive salary for what you did not work for, is that right, is that just?
In the gospel, Jesus tells us a story of a rich man who employs another person to manage his business. The rich person made the person his manager. But the manager becomes wasteful. Other people see how this manager wastes away his master’s resources and report him to his master. What does the master do? He calls the steward or manager to question. He asks the manager to quit based on the accusation of wastefulness of resources. True to his craftiness, the manager seeing that his manager-ship has come to an end decides to cheat the Master further. He begins to think to himself that now his stewardship is over. What shall he do? He admits that he is not strong to work and he is ashamed to beg. So, in order to gain acceptance in people’s houses after being sacked, he calls all those who owe his master. He calls one and the person says that he owes hundred measures of oils. The crafty manager says to his master’s debtor, ‘You don’t need to pay all. Reduce it to fifty. We can share the fifty together, the two of us later.’ He calls another and that person says that he owes hundred measures of wheat. The manager asks him to reduce it to eighty. They will share the twenty later.
Using the dishonest steward in the gospel, let us see analyse and see how we are different or better than he as Nigerians:
Corruption: ‘Whistle Blowers’ reported to the rich man the wasteful attitude of his manager. The employer wastes no time and investigates. He finds that the accusation is true and he acts by dismissing the wasteful manager.
‘There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought o him that this man was wasting his goods.’ Give me account of your stewardship because you are no longer my steward.
Wastefulness of national or regional or collective or private resources is corruption. Everything we have is given to us by God or others in trust. If we waste them on our pleasures, personal aggrandizement, travels, shows –buying of cars or building of houses and or elephant projects, we are being wasteful and corrupt. Any form of extravagance with the resources of government to fuel crises and at the same clamming to quell such crises is corruption.
Have we been entrusted with managing resources? How did we or do we manage such resources? Were we dishonest or honest in such matters?
Craftiness/dishonesty: The Manager says to himself: what hall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship. So, summoning his masters’ debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my mater?’ he said, ‘a hundred measure of oil.’ Write that you owe fifty.’ To the second, ‘how much do you owe?’ The debtor said, ‘a hundred measure of wheat.’ He told him to cancel twenty out, remaining eighty.
Do we give employment to others even when they were not quantified so that when we retire, these people will ‘cover us’ or take us to their houses?
Laziness/Shame: Many of us are lazy to work. We prefer, even after graduation, to roam about with photocopies of certificates from one secretariat to the other looking for employments. We prefer to go to churches that tell us to pray only and all shall be well with us. We deceive ourselves thinking that we shall be as rich as the pastors who tell us to pray only by going those churches. Unknown to you, these pastors send their children to the best of schools abroad and use you, the lazy ones to enrich themselves.
We are in a nation of irony. We spend all the day praying for success without working to succeed. We are lazy and we celebrate laziness and mediocrity. Little wonder, we prefer to go into politics instead of the area we have studied. Why? We do not want to stress our brains. Why strain our brains while we have oil wells? It seems that our studies have stealing of government property as their end. We study to steal later and enrich ourselves by the craft of graft.
Wickedness: We are growing gradually from corruption to dishonesty and from dishonesty to wickedness. We are deliberately wicked today. We are wicked to government and to each other. Ogas are wicked to their apprentices and apprentices are wicked to their ogas. Husbands are wicked to their wives and wives are wicked to their husbands. We are in a nation of do-me-and-I-do-you-God-no-go-vest situation. Each is trying to destroy the progress of the other and that is why our wickedness is making go in an endless spiral of evil or vicious circle. There is so much motion in our systems without movement because we are just wicked to each other.
Injustice: The manager of the rich mas was not just and sincere. He was wasteful with the resources of the owner. That is unjust. He did not give the owner what was his due. Government workers claim that government is not just to them when they are not paid. But did they work to generate money to pay them in all honesty? Are they sincere in working? Someone once defines civil service as a system in which ‘the employer is trying and struggling to steal the employee and the employee is trying and struggling to steal the employer.’ Employers are wicked to their employees and the employees are wicked to their employers.
I believe strongly that if the workers put in their best in working for government, their primary employer, as they do with their private businesses, they will be paid as at when due. They will demand what is their due without fear and government will pay them because they have given all their sweat and blood to generate money for the government. So, the government is not foolish – it is operating on the principle of ‘no work, no pay.’ And since we know we are not doing the right thing, we only complain and do nothing about our miserable conditions in life.
Insecurity: The manager, because of his corruption, dishonesty, laziness, wickedness and injustice, became insecure of his future. We know that whatever you sow, that you shall reap. So, the manager becomes fearful and insecure. He plots to secure a future with the debtors of his masters. A wicked man has no future. He will still go and deceive them and he will be sent away. His security is in the flesh and not in heaven or God.
Today we are called to be faithful in all we do. Jesus says to us, “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” This is because it is God who has given us what we are doing. From the smallest to the biggest of works that we are doing, we should note that it is God who has given us such work and he expects us to do it faithfully.
There is no better way or alternative way to progress and success than being frugal, industrious, responsible, just and accountable. Each of us is called to do this and we shall be faithful in our following of Christ.
As just the second reading calls us, ‘Beloved: first of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we many lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’.
As we receive the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, we pray that Jesus will be in us and we in him so that we shall be faithful in all we do!
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