The parable Jesus tells His disciples in today's Gospel about the dishonest steward who has his master's debtors falsify the amount of their debts (Lk 16: 1-8) always has seemed a little odd to me. Who calls doing something like that "prudent?" Yet that is what the master says to the steward, apparently after the master has discovered the steward's dishonest scheme. Maybe the characterization is simply ironic-- perhaps the master calls the steward "prudent" with a tone of voice suggesting that the master really means "stupid" or "crooked." After all, the steward was in trouble already for being dishonest, and now he is in even more trouble. But Jesus says the the master "commended" the dishonest steward, so it doesn't seem as if the use of the word "prudent" was intended to be ironic. It seems like the comment was genuine. Perhaps the problem is with our translation of the Greek word which was originally used (actually, Jesus spoke Aramaic, so we don't have His exact word, but the Greek is the best we have). If you look at the New International Version of the Bible, or the New Revised Standard Version (which is what Catholics use in Canada), the word is translated as "shrewd." That seems better-- it has the sense of being close to dishonest, or of playing on the edge of the law, that "prudent" lacks. OK, let's call the maneuver of the dishonest steward "shrewd," or sneaky or crafty or devious or tricky. His shrewd move is not to give the debtors a break so they will like him, although if someone wrote your debt down from, say, $ 100,000 to $50,000, you'd probably like that person. No, the shrewd move is to get the person to write the new note in his own handwriting, thus making him an actor in the fraudulent drama. After all, the dishonest steward could certainly have figured out a way to write down the notes and give the debtors the same benefit, say by marking on them that payments had been made which had not actually happened, which would have made the debtors like the steward without requiring the debtors to do anything. By getting the debtors to write new notes, the steward puts the debtors in his power, at least if he can pull the scheme off. They will have to welcome him into their homes because they will come to realize that the steward can go to his former master anytime he wants and rat them out. In addition, the steward will have an incentive to do that because the falsified notes will give the steward an explanation for the shortages which the master's requested "full accounting" of the stewardship will certainly reveal. So what looks like a great deal to the debtors is really a trap. A little thought by the debtors would have revealed at least some of the risks here, which is why the steward asks that the new note be written "quickly." No time to think about the implications or to let one's conscience really weigh in, and certainly the debtors must have felt that what they were doing wasn't right. Act quickly, the steward says, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to reduce your debts dramatically, and it won't come again. But you have to act fast. We here come-ons like that a lot, don't we? When we do, I think we should always, without exception, every time, stop and say "no." If someone wants you to decide right away on a "too good to be true" or "once in a lifetime" deal, say "no." If it is a real, honest deal, it will still be there tomorrow or the next day. If not, you're lucky not to be mixed up in it. Why do things work this way? Why did the dishonest steward pressure the debtors into acting quickly? I think the answer is our conscience. I've been reading St. John Henry's Newman's "Apologia Pro Vita Sua," the saint's discussion about his life, and especially his conversion from the Church of England to Roman Catholicism. He talks often about conscience, and the role that it played. It took Newman years to come to the conclusion he should convert. That's how conscience works. It takes time, reflection, prayer, consideration-- at least for any big decision. The opposite of that process is the "sit down quickly and write one (a new promissory note) for fifty." My grandmother used to say: "Act in haste; regret at leasure." I have no doubt that's what the debtors in this parable did. It's not a good strategy.