USE YOUR HEAD!

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"How much do you owe my master?"

Yesterday (Friday) the gospel reading at mass was Luke 16:1-8, the parable of the steward who was about to get fired for squandering his master's goods. You'll remember that the steward thought, "I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes." He called in his master's debtors one by one. and told each one to rewrite the debt minus the steward's hefty commission -- that's how a debt of one hundred measures of olive oil suddenly became fifty. "And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light."

Jesus commends the attitude of the steward who, foreseeing what was coming, acted to prepare for it.  This fellow, the parable tells us, acted "prudently," in Greek, "phronimos." This adverb is from the root phren-, that has to do with the head, the brain (remember phrenology?). Jesus commends the man for "using his head," and then laments that "the children of light" don't "use their heads" when it comes to their relationship with God.

Yesterday I saw three of our seventh graders sitting the bench outside the headmaster's office. Of course, you don't get told to sit on that bench for behaving well. I walked up to the three solemn-faced boys and whispered, "Did you guys do something dumb?" All three nodded together. Then one of them added in a whisper, "Real dumb." I didn't ask what they'd done, but said "Well, that happens to all of us from time to time. Good luck."

Undoubtedly, the tree culprits were in trouble because they hadn't "used their heads." We often wind up asking teenagers who've done something stupid, "What were you thinking?" Of course we get a blank stare in return that says "Thinking? What's that?"

Neuroscientists assure us that the human brain isn't fully mature until about the age of twenty-four -- especially the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that concerns foreseeing consequences. So, a teenager has some excuse for not acting prudently all the time. But  what's my excuse?

It's an interesting exercise to look for areas in my life in which I'm not "using my head" relative to my relationship with God. There may be things that the Lord is asking me to do, but I'm neglecting to do them even though I know that it would make sense for me to do them. Or maybe there's something that I do even though it's ill-advised from a spiritual point of view. It may help if I followed the example of the steward who realized that soon his situation was going to change radically, and so "used his head" to prepare for that day.