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Dear faithful, Today we hear a parable of Christ the Lord that is difficult to understand, because when we listen to what the Lord Jesus is saying to us today, we begin to wonder whether the Savior approves of dishonesty, scheming, and deceit. Does the Lord Jesus, who spent 30 years of his hidden life with the Holy Family, who worked hard as a carpenter in Nazareth, want to present to us today as a model to emulate a dishonest steward? This parable we hear today is a praise of dishonesty and scheming.

The answers to all these questions, which may be piling up in our minds, can be found in the very text of today’s Gospel. But for us, people so very absorbed in worldly matters, for us, who constantly think more in human terms than in divine terms, these answers are very hard to see. Let us therefore take a closer look at what constitutes the message, the true message of this parable about the dishonest steward.

Let us note, my dear ones, that the Savior describes human behavior that is all too familiar to us from everyday life. We see, my dear friends, a man who is scheming, who is wondering what to do when he loses his job, when his stewardship is taken away. What will he do with himself then?

And we see, my dear friends, how he has devised a plan. And it is a plan, one might say, that is brilliant, because at that very moment, when he forgives part of the debt that the debtors owe to his master, it is precisely at that moment that those debtors become indebted to him in gratitude. When he loses his job, when he loses his position of authority, he will be able to turn to them.

And somewhere deep in our hearts, we may be ashamed to admit it, but we begin to feel admiration for this unjust steward. How well he thought this through, how clever he is, how brilliant this plan that will ensure [snort] him a safe, peaceful future. Dear faithful, however, to properly understand the message of today’s Gospel, we must note that the Lord Jesus refers to that dishonest steward as a son of this world.

A son of this world. And after a moment, He adds the Savior that the sons of this world are wiser than the sons of light. And this is a rebuke directed at each one of us.

To each and every one of us. So what, then, is the Lord Jesus getting at? Well, my dear friends, through today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus wants to call us to to ensure that, with at least as much resourcefulness, as much zeal, and as much diligence, we are able to care for our souls, for our salvation, just as we do in the case of worldly matters.

May we, my dear friends, devote just as much effort and just as much time to saving our own souls. Just as we do, my dear friends, when it comes to earthly matters. After all, we humans know perfectly well that if we want to achieve something, we have to commit ourselves; we have to sacrifice something.

If a person wants to buy a new house or a new car, they can save for months or even years. They’ll take out a loan from a Jєωιѕн bank, and pay it off for years. If a woman wants to lose weight, she can go for weeks eating almost nothing.

If an athlete wants to win a competition, tournament, game, contest, or the Olympics, they can train hard for years on end, because we know perfectly well that if we want to achieve something, we must commit ourselves; we must make sacrifices. But what about our soul? Our soul, my dear friends, so often lies fallow like a field without a farmer.

Our soul is overgrown with weeds, it bears no fruit. Why? Because there is no one to tend to it.

Because there is no one to tend to it. All the time, my dear friends, we pass by the Lord Jesus every day of our lives. We pass him by and say to him: “Lord Jesus, not now; maybe someday I’ll take you seriously.

Lord Jesus, not now. Today I have other plans, other dreams. Leave me alone.

And yet the Lord Christ did everything He could for us and for our salvation. He took on human nature, became a man, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, and set an example for us of an upright life here on earth. Finally, He offered Himself as a sacrifice of atonement on the altar of the cross.

He shed His precious blood in order to to redeem us, to pay off the debt we incurred toward divine majesty by committing sin. He remains present with us in the Most Holy Sacrament, granting us His grace through the seven sacraments. And we, my dear friends, we Catholics, are capable of spurning all of this.

We are unable to devote [clears throat] time, energy, or interest to the salvation of our own souls. This indifference has already led millions of baptized souls into the fires of hell. [snort] May we, my beloved, and perhaps this is the last warning bell ringing in our lives, show the same resourcefulness, cleverness, and commitment when it comes to the salvation of our souls.

just as we are capable of doing in our daily lives. This, my dear friends, is what Christ the Lord is calling us to do today. That is all—and only that—is what God requires of us: that we treat the matters of our souls’ salvation with the utmost seriousness.

After all, God gives us so many gifts here on earth. He gives us talents that we are to multiply. And what do we use these talents received from God for?

We are perfectly capable, my dear friends, of finding our way in this world. We are capable, my dear friends, of facing all these absurdities piling up around us. We are able, my dear friends, here on earth to care for our bodies, and may we, my dear friends, finally care for our souls with the same zeal, interest, and resourcefulness.

Dear faithful, in the context of today’s parable, another question may also arise. >> [clears throat] >> What about worldly goods, about wealth? Is it wrong to be a wealthy person?

No, it isn’t. Wealth itself is not the problem. The problem is human greed.

There is nothing wrong with possessing great wealth. The problem is that people— most people with wealth—cannot handle it. Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Why? Well, my dear friends, because the Savior, who knows our nature perfectly—for He is, after all, its Creator— [snort] knows what a problem one of the deadly sins, namely greed, truly is. Greed causes a person to be unable to be content with what they have, to be ungrateful to God for what they receive from Him, and to constantly live with the conviction that they deserve more and more and more.

But this “more, more, more” has no boundaries, no limits whatsoever. Greed, my dear ones, brings chaos and disorder into human life. People [snort] are unable to organize their lives, [clears throat] to arrange them as they should.

And then this desire to possess becomes like shackles for them, which prevent them from attending to anything else, which prevent them from lifting their thoughts and hearts upward, toward heaven, toward God, because all that matters is what is here and now. And yet, my dear ones, we are perfectly aware that everything that is here on earth will sooner or later pass away. [snort] We came into this world with nothing, and with nothing from this world we will depart.

The only thing we can take with us is faith, God’s grace, which has strengthened us here on earth, with which we have worked together and brought forth a harvest in the form of good deeds. That is the only thing you can take with you from this world, and it is the only thing that ultimately matters. Dear faithful, let us finally take seriously the overgrown field of our [snort] soul.

Let us, my dear ones, devote as much effort to our salvation as we are able to devote to caring for our bodies. My beloved, one more point to which I wish to draw your attention. When we take up the text of the Gospel of Luke, after this passage, after this parable of the dishonest steward, which the Holy Church is reading to us today, we find a passage perfectly familiar to us from the words of the Lord Jesus.

You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and mammon. >> [snort] >> And this mammon, of which the Lord Christ speaks, does not necessarily mean only wealth or money.

This mammon, my dear friends, is every wickedness that draws us away from God, that [snort] causes chaos to appear in our lives, causes disorder originating from the devil. This mammon of contemporary Catholics is the 30 pieces of silver of betrayal. 30 pieces of silver of reconciliation with the enemies of Jesus Christ.

How many souls in recent weeks have fallen into this satanic trap, into this desire—satanic in its very essence— to receive a seal of approval? But from whom? From people who are not Catholics, from people who are destroying the Catholic Church.

And surprising— one might say—news. The Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X is filing an appeal against the decree imposing excommunications on July 2.

But to whom is it filing this appeal? Well, to those very people who have been destroying the Catholic Church for several decades now. In this way, the Priestly Fraternity of Pius X is authorizing these spiritual criminals, placing itself in their hands, recognizing their jurisdiction and authority to pass judgment.

A great, great mistake. A huge, huge mistake. And this, my dear friends, is nothing other than the fruit of following Mammon.

Mammon in the form of those 30 pieces of silver— recognition, acceptance, so that people will speak well of us, so that people will not say that we are out of communion, that we are schismatics. But my dear friends, Archbishop Lef has already repeated many times that if you want to preserve the Catholic faith, you must cut yourself off from the conciliar Church. Alefer used to say that if they impose penalties on me, it is proof that I am a Catholic.

Because it is not Catholics, but heretics, traitors to Jesus Christ, who impose penalties on me. And for me, this is proof that I am a Catholic and do not belong to—nor do I want to belong to—the false conciliar Church. Let us, my dear friends, keep this in mind.

Let us not allow ourselves to be caught by the devil in this temptation of compromise, of false agreement. The source of the Church’s unity is the profession of the same faith. Whoever does not profess the Catholic faith, whoever rejects the Catholic faith, places himself—places himself—outside the Church.

We must, my dear friends, finally begin to think in a godly way. Stop wondering what people will say about me, what people will think of me, but rather what God thinks of me. What kind of person I am in the eyes of God.

What am I like in God’s eyes? That [snort] is the only thing that matters. So let us make use of the talents that God has given us; let us make use of His grace and the gifts He gives us every day.

Above all, first and foremost, to shape our soul, to prepare it for eternity with the Savior. Let us make use of the talents that God gives us. Not only to accuмulate treasures here on earth, but above all to accuмulate treasures in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Amen.