And he went to the sundry debtors of his master and he said to the first one: “How much do you owe my master for the money he lent you three years ago in springtime?”
And the debtor replied: “One hundred measures of oil for money and interest.”
“Oh! Poor fellow! What, with such a large family and with your children afflicted by diseases, you have to give so much?! But did he not give you money to the value of thirty measures?!”
“Yes, but I needed it urgently and he said to me: ‘I will give it to you, but on condition that you will pay me back whatever the sum will yield to you in three years.’ It yielded the equivalent of one hundred measures. And I must give them.”
“But that is usury! Don’t! He is rich, while you are not far from starving. He has a small family, you have a large one. Write here that it yielded to the value of fifty measures and forget about it. I will swear that it is the truth. And you will benefit by it.”
“But will you not betray me? And if he finds out?”
“Do you think it is possible? I am the steward and what I swear is sacred. Do as I tell you and do not worry.”
The man signed the document, handed it to him and said: “May you be blessed! You are my friend and saviour. How can I compensate you?”
“In no way! But if I should get into trouble and be dismissed because of this, you will welcome me out of gratitude.”
that!’
The steward went to another debtor and talked to him more or less in the same way. This debtor was to give back one hundred measures of wheat, because the drought had destroyed his crops for three years, and he had to borrow what was necessary to feed his family.
“Forget about doubling what he gave you! How can one deny wheat and exact twice as much when a fellow and his family are starving and one’s wheat is eaten by worms in the barns, because there is superabundance of it! Write eighty measures.”
“But if he remembers that he gave me twenty, then another twenty, and then ten?”
“How can you expect him to remember? I gave them to you and I do not want to remember. Do as I say and it is all settled. There must be justice between rich and poor people! If I were the master, I would accept only the fifty measures, and perhaps I would remit them as well.”
“You are good! I wish they were all like you! Remember that my house is open to you.”
The steward called on other debtors, in the same way, stating that he was willing to get into trouble to put matters right according to justice. And offers of help and blessings rained upon him.
When he was reassured about his future, he went to his master, who, in turn, had dogged his steps and discovered his trick. The master, however, praised him saying: “What you did is not right and I do not praise you for that. But I must praise you for your cunning. The children of this world are really more cunning than the children of Light.”
And I repeat to you what the rich man said: “Fraud is not right, and I will never praise anyone for it. But I exhort you to be shrewd, at least like the children of this world, with the means of this world, to make them serve as money to enter the Kingdom of Light.” That is, make good use of earthly riches, which are means distributed unjustly and used to purchase a fleeting welfare, which is of no value in the eternal Kingdom, so that they may open its door to you. Assist the poor with the means you have, give back what you or any other member of your family took unjustly, break with the evil guilty love for riches. And all these things will be like friends who in the hour of your death will open the
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eternal gates to you and will receive you in the blissful abode.
How can you expect God to give His heavenly goods, if He sees that you cannot make good use even of earthly goods? As an impossible supposition, do you want Him to accept squanderers in the heavenly Jerusalem? No, never. Up there one will live with charity, generosity and justice. Everybody for One and everyone for everybody. The Communion of Saints is an active and honest society, it is a holy society. And no one who has proved to be unjust and unfaithful can enter it.
Do not say: “But we shall be faithful up there, because we shall have everything up there without any fear.” No. He who is unfaithful in little, would be unfaithful even if he possessed Everything, and he who is unjust in little is unjust in much. God does not trust true wealth to those who in the earthly test prove that they do not know how to use earthly riches. How can God entrust you one day in Heaven with the mission of supporting spirits of your brothers on the Earth, when you have shown that extortions, frauds and greed are your prerogatives? He will, therefore, deny you your treasure, which He had kept for you, and He will give it to those who were shrewd on the Earth, by using also what is unjust and unwholesome in deeds which make them just and wholesome.
No servant can serve two masters. Because he will belong to one or to the other, and he will hate one or the other. The two masters whom man can choose are God or Mammon. But if he wishes to belong to the former, he cannot wear the colours, or follow the voice, or use the means of the latter.»
A voice rises from the group of the Essenes: «Man is not free to choose. He is forced to follow a fate. We do not state that it is distributed unwisely. On the contrary the perfect Mind has fixed, according to its own perfect plan, the number of those who will be worthy of Heaven. All the others strive in vain to become so. That is the situation. And it cannot be otherwise. As one coming out of a house may be killed by a stone falling from a cornice, whereas one in the thick of the battle may not suffer the slightest wound, likewise he who wants to save himself, but it is not written so, will only commit sin even unawares, because his damnation is fated. »
«No, man. It is not so. And change your mind. By thinking so you do the Lord wrong. »
«Why? Tell me and I will change my mind.»
«Because, by saying so, you mentally confess that God is unjust with His creatures. He created them in the same way and with the same love. He is a Father. Perfect in His paternity, as He is in everything else. How can He, therefore, make distinctions and curse a man when he is being conceived and is an innocent embryo? When he is incapable of committing sin?»
«To take His revenge for the offence received from man.»
«No. God does not take His revenge thus! He would not be satisfied with a miserable sacrifice like that, with an unjust forced sacrifice. The offence made to God can be removed by the God made Man. He will be the Expiator. Neither this nor that man. Oh! I wish it had been possible for Me to have to remove only the original sin! I wish there had been no Cain on the Earth, no Lamech, no corrupt sodomite, no homicide, thief, fornicator, adulterer, blasphemer, no one without love for one’s parents, no perjurer, and so forth! But of each of those sins, the sinner is guilty and the author, not God. God left His children free to choose between Good and Evil.»
«And that was wrong» shouts a scribe. «He tempted us beyond measure. Although He knew that we were weak, ignorant, poisoned, He led us into temptation. That is either imprudence or wickedness. Since You are just, You must grant that what I say is the truth. »
«You are telling lies to tempt Me. God had given Adam and Eve all the necessary advice, to what avail?»
«He did the wrong thing even then. He should not have put the tree, the temptation, in the Garden. »
«In that case, where is the merit of man?»
«He would have done without it. He would have lived with no merit of his own, but only with the merit of God.»
«They are tempting You, Master. Leave those serpents alone, and listen to us, who live in continence and meditation» shouts once again the Essene.
«Yes, you live. But badly. Why do you not live holily?»
The Essene does not reply to the questions, but he asks: «As You gave me a convincing answer on free will, and I will meditate on it with good will, hoping that I will be able to accept it, now tell me. Do You really believe in the resurrection of bodies and in the life of souls completed by it?»
