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The Lord gives us a parable today about a steward about to be fired for squandering his master’s property. Father Pablo Gadenz, a Scripture professor at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., pointed out that when Our Lord previously told a parable about a steward, he followed it up by asking, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward, whom the master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?” (Lk 12:42) The two qualities highlighted were “faithfulness,” or “trustworthiness,” and “prudence.”

It makes sense why these two qualities would be important for a steward to have. Since a steward is entrusted with managing his master’s property, he should first be faithful to his master, someone in whom his master can trust. The steward could have all the competence in the world, but if he lacks loyalty, then how can the master trust that he is really acting in the master’s best interest rather than his own? How does the master know that the competent but disloyal steward is not using his cunning to steal from him, for example? On the other hand, someone could be the most loyal and trustworthy person imaginable, but if he lacks prudence and competence in managing the property, then, despite his best intentions, he will run the master’s household into the ground. Both faithfulness and prudence are required in a good steward.

In today’s parable, found four chapters later, Jesus describes a steward who certainly does not have both qualities. He has a certain prudence, and for this he is commended, but he is not faithful to his master. We hear immediately that he has squandered his master’s property, and so when he finds out that he is about to lose his job, he uses his prudence to come up with a plan. This plan involves making friends with his master’s debtors, but at his master’s expense. He visits each one and replaces their promissory notes with fraudulent ones that show they owe less than they really do.

Why does Jesus have us reflect on this cunning but dishonest steward? It is to make this observation: “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” It is the steward’s prudence being commended, not his lack of trustworthiness. As the author and philosophy professor Peter Kreeft put it, the steward knows how to use money in service of a higher good. He uses money to make friends, not friends to make money.

But then Our Lord continues with this, saying: “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Notice the big difference between the kind of prudence the dishonest steward has and the kind of prudence we are called to have. He used his master’s money to make friends here on earth who will welcome him into their dwellings after he loses his job. We are told to use our wealth to make friends, yes, but not so that we will be repaid in this life. After all, Jesus teaches elsewhere, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Lk 14:12–14).

This is what it means to make friends who will welcome us into eternal dwellings. Use your wealth in generous service of the poor. Those are the friends who will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

The dishonest steward is prudent in a worldly way, and so he is able to make provision for himself in this life. We are called to be prudent regarding our supernatural life and destiny — that is, to give to the poor. In doing so, we make friends who will welcome us, not into earthly dwellings, but into eternal ones.