Parables were a favorite teaching tool of Jesus.  While the parables of Jesus have the primary purpose of teaching about the Kingdom of God and salvation, many of these parables involve business themes, and are thus useful tools for understanding the Catholic Social Teachings on business as well.  In this column, I consider ‘the parable of the dishonest steward’ and what it can tell us about business in light of Catholic Social Teaching.

“The Dishonest Steward”: Luke 16:1-8

Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my steward any longer.’  

“Then the steward said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’

“So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’

“And his master commended the dishonest steward because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”

This parable seems quite challenging to me.  The master is not commending the dishonest steward for being dishonest, as the parable draws a clear distinction between ‘the children of this age’ and ‘the children of light’ (i.e., those who know, love and follow God).

So what does the parable teach about how to be ‘shrewd in dealing with our own generation’? [At this point, proper pedagogy would require that I ask you to stop reading and take a pen and paper—or some more technologically advanced tools, though that’s more dangerous because they may distract you—to write down your own answer.  Let nothing—and least of all what follows below—stop you if you are so inclined.]  Let’s put ourselves in the position of the main protagonist, the steward, and explore.

First, the steward was put in charge of the master’s property, as we are given responsibility in our life for all of the gifts that God has given us.  The steward shrewdly recognizes that the master’s property is not his own property (even if he perhaps recognized this a bit late), and is shrewd in using his master’s property to his own advantage (though presumably not to his master’s advantage).  Are we shrewd enough to realize that all of God’s gifts to us are ultimately not our own?  Do we understand that our private property and our talents are not, ultimately, our own but are granted to us ‘through God, with God and in God’?

For example, the Catholic Church strongly defends the right to private property as foundational for business and human dignity, but also reminds us that all property is a gift from God, and thus comes with responsibility.  The Church distinguishes the right to private ownership of property and the right to use our private property, defending the former and guiding the latter towards the ‘universal destination of all goods,’ teaching that property be used such that it also benefits others and does not harm anyone [time for some more homework: Get your copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church from your bookshelf or find it online, and read sections 2401-2463, obviously without skipping the full reading of the references in the footnotes as available in the Compendium].

In short, the Church states that the right to private ownership is not absolute.  We are the stewards of our property, or the temporary owners, while God is the ultimate owner.  Just as the steward cannot do with his master’s property whatever he likes, neither can we use our gifts in any way we please.  Our human capital and property should be used to advance human flourishing in the ‘common good’.  That means that the purpose of business is to contribute to human flourishing in solidarity with others, and towards the ‘integral human development’ of everyone involved with the business.

Businesses do so by fulfilling genuine human needs with their products and services, by forming interpersonal and beneficial relationships among everyone involved—which naturally includes the creation of finance value for investors—and by helping employees especially to grow in virtues and skills.  Therefore, the first way in which we can be shrewd is in recognizing the reality that we are not the master but the steward, that we should thank the master for His generosity by using His gifts well, and that we will be held accountable.

Second, this recognition creates a problem for the steward, as “charges were brought to him that [he] was squandering [the master’s] property.”  The steward knows his master’s standards and that he has failed according to those standards.  He knows that he’s in trouble.  Do we recognize that we are falling short, that we are in trouble and need help?  Who among us cannot be charged with not fully using all of God’s gifts to our utmost ability such that the common good has benefited to the fullest measure?  Who has not freely squandered part of God’s gifts?  Who does not need God’s mercy and who does not stand in need of God’s grace to grow?  And while I cannot judge that for others, if you feel that you cannot be charged at all, then perhaps you may have set too low standards for yourself.  Are your standards those of the ‘one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church’ founded by Jesus Christ?

Likewise, by what standards do business firms operate?  How do you define success in business and in your (prospective) career?  As a finance professor, I naturally see the necessity of financial standards and the importance of creating financial value.  Investors are central to business, and like everyone should be treated justly.  That means that corporations should only invest money to the extent that the investments are reasonably expected to deliver the return that its investors require.  But financial standards are not sufficient, just as human flourishing cannot be reduced to your financial well-being.

The priority of business is to form just relationships with everyone involved (including investors), to form a community of persons that cooperates towards the common purpose of business as discussed above.  As a result, everyone involved in a firm should likewise benefit from their participation, proportionally to their contributions and needs.

Above all, the Catholic Church teaches that the foremost standard of the firm should be the standard of the advancement of the dignity of the human person, in light of Christian anthropology.  As a result, the second way in which the steward is shrewd is that he knows and understands his master’s standards and that he actually fell short of those, i.e. that he really is in trouble and that he needs help, desperately and quickly.  Do you know and understand the Church’s standards on morality and (business) ethics, and that you need God’s help?

Third and finally, the steward is especially shrewd in seeing that the solution lies in cultivating better relationships with others.  Apparently and unfortunately, neither the steward’s relationship with the master nor his view of the nature of the master are such that the steward expects to receive any mercy from the master.  Next to his dishonesty, this is another way in which the steward is not a good example, as elsewhere in the New Testament it is made abundantly clear that God is calling us to a very personal relationship, that God is infinitely rich in love, mercy and generosity, and that God will never spurn a contrite heart.

The steward shrewdly recognizes that it is in his own interest to have good relationships with others, which he diligently works towards by being wildly generous with his master’s property.  Do we recognize that it is in our interest to serve others?  Do we recognize that it is by giving (or losing) ourselves that we gain life?  Are we wildly generous towards others with all of God’s gifts to us—where the Giver of the gifts has made it so abundantly clear through the example of Jesus that it is very much in our own ultimate interest to share His gifts generously, and that He cannot be outdone in generosity?

I’m asking myself these questions as well, obviously.  Our self-interest is therefore threefold: to (i) do God’s will, and thus have a strong relationship with God, (ii) serve others as Jesus does, and (iii) by God’s grace, grow in virtue and holiness.

Likewise, businesses create value for themselves by creating value for others.  In order to create value for, say, customers, you have to understand your customers and have some kind of relationship with them.  You also have to understand the people that you are cooperating with in the business, and have a strong relationship with them.  Each business is a community of persons, and it is in the interest of the business to recognize that all value is created in a ‘network of relationships’ or through mutually beneficial cooperation.  Relationships with others are damaged when you try to manipulate the other, which happens when you see the other as only a means or instrument towards your goal, rather than align the good of the other to your own good.  Being shrewd in business means understanding that genuine, long-term, and sustainable business success similarly depends on relationships of trust, on our genuine concern for the other and on our wild generosity with God’s gifts.

May we be as shrewd as ‘the children of this age,’ while using God’s gifts as true ‘children of light.’

 

Martijn Cremers is a professor of finance at Notre Dame.  He can be reached at mcremers@nd.edu.