This session takes up a topic that Jesus returns to often and that Christians today seldom address: money, possessions, and our responsibility to people in need. The Rich Fool warns against the illusion that wealth secures the soul. The Unrighteous Steward teaches the wise use of money for eternal purposes. The Talents make clear that what God entrusts to us must be invested, not buried. Lazarus and the Rich Man closes the session with the most pointed teaching Jesus gives about the eternal weight of how we treat the poor.
The pastoral aim is to bring the underlying spiritual question into the open: to whom do my possessions belong? This session does not set out to produce guilt about money. Catholic teaching here is consistent and ancient. God entrusts material goods to us as stewards, and we will give an account. How a disciple handles wealth shows openly where that disciple’s loyalties lie.
Audience note: High-schoolers largely live off their parents’ resources. Young adults are often dealing with student loans, first salaries, and habits that will shape decades. For high-schoolers the task is to form their desires before the larger sums arrive. For young adults it is to establish the practice of generosity now, before a rising standard of living makes it harder later.
Luke 12:13-21 begins with a man asking Jesus to settle an inheritance dispute. Jesus refuses the role of arbiter and names the deeper problem: “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Lk 12:15). The parable is short and severe. A rich man’s land has produced abundantly, and he plans bigger barns and years of comfortable ease. He says to his soul: “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry” (Lk 12:19). God’s response breaks in on all his plans (Lk 12:20): “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
St. Basil the Great’s preaching on this parable is among the most challenging texts in the patristic tradition, the writings of the early Church Fathers. In his homilies I Will Tear Down My Barns and To the Rich, he follows the logic of the parable through with a clarity that is hard to hear. The rich man does not sin by being wealthy. He sins by calling the goods his own when they were entrusted to him for the relief of others. St. Basil’s teaching, faithfully summarized, runs as follows. The bread you keep belongs to the hungry, and the cloak in your closet to the naked. The shoes molding in your possession belong to the barefoot, and the silver buried in the earth to the destitute. To possess what you do not need while another goes without what they need is to keep what is not yours.
This is harder than most modern readers want it to be. The parable is not addressed only to the very wealthy. It speaks to anyone who, like the man in the parable, has begun to identify the safety of the soul with the abundance of the barns. The fundamental question is who the disciple thinks owns the money. How much money the disciple has is secondary.
Luke 16:1-13 is one of the most difficult parables, because Jesus appears to commend behavior that looks dishonest on its face. The steward has been fired for waste. He quickly reduces the debts of his master’s debtors so that they will welcome him after his dismissal, and the master commends him for his shrewdness. Jesus then draws the lesson: “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations” (Lk 16:9).
The tradition has clarified what Jesus is and is not commending. He does not commend the steward’s dishonesty. He commends his urgency and his recognition that his position is temporary. The shrewd steward used what was about to be taken from him to secure relationships that would outlast his job. The disciple’s wealth is likewise temporary. It should be used now, while it is still in hand, to make eternal friends. That means blessing the poor (with whom Christ identifies himself, and by whose treatment he judges us, Mt 25:31-46), supporting the Church, and funding the works of mercy. The parable does not turn on the morality of the steward’s methods. It teaches that wealth must be put to work for purposes that survive death. The parable closes with one of Jesus’ most uncompromising statements: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13). Money is not neutral. It acts as a rival lord, and the disciple must decide which one receives the loyalty.
The Talents (Mt 25:14-30) and its parallel, the Pounds (Lk 19:11-27), share a structure. A master entrusts goods, departs, and returns to settle accounts. The faithful servants invest and produce a return. The unfaithful servant buries what he received and produces nothing. His defense is revealing: “Master, I knew you to be a hard man … so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground” (Mt 25:24-25). His failure is not dishonesty. He fails because fear keeps him from acting.
St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Matthew, Hom. 78) treats the buried talent as a warning to those who treat their gifts as private possessions rather than goods entrusted for the service of others. The servant did not lose what he was given. He failed to put it to use. St. Gregory the Great (Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 9, on the Talents; Homily 18 in Hurst’s translation) reads the talents as every gift God entrusts, not money alone. To extend his principle, what is entrusted includes intelligence, skills, time, education, opportunity, family, and faith. Each disciple has a set of gifts specific to his or her life, and each will give an account of what was done with it. The different amounts (five, two, one) are part of the teaching, because the master judges each servant in proportion to what was given. Whether you are the five-talent or the one-talent servant, what matters is whether you have invested what you have.
In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus names Lazarus, the beggar at the rich man’s gate, while the rich man remains unnamed. In life the rich man lives in luxury while Lazarus suffers at his gate (Lk 16:19-21). In death their situations are reversed. Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man is in torment. The parable does not accuse the rich man of active cruelty. The neglect is the sin. This parable is addressed to anyone who has the means to help a person in need and does not respond. Jesus leaves no doubt that the stakes are eternal.
These are the deep roots of Session 7’s parables. The group opens the Proverbs text during the Unrighteous Steward discussion, and the rest are developed here.
Psalm 49 is the wisdom background of the Rich Fool. Wealth does not lengthen life, and it does not go with the soul beyond the grave. The Rich Fool acts out what the Psalm declares.
Proverbs 19:17 gives the logic behind both Lazarus and the Rich Man and the sheep and goats of Matthew 25. God treats mercy to the poor as an investment made with him personally. Neglect of the poor is a debt the soul will face.
Deuteronomy 15 establishes the foundational obligation. Generosity to the poor is a covenantal duty, rooted in God’s prior generosity to Israel. It is not optional charity. The rich man at his gate breaks this covenant in its most basic form.
Isaiah 58 is one of the clearest Old Testament statements that God does not accept worship without justice for the poor. It is the prophetic background for everything Jesus says about wealth and the poor.
Sirach 29 states the theology behind the Unrighteous Steward and Lazarus. Almsgiving is not charity added on to the spiritual life. It is itself an act of the spiritual life, and it stores treasure where rust cannot reach. Jesus draws on a coherent Jewish tradition when he tells these parables.
Method: Direct quotations appear in quotation marks with a citation. Where a teaching is faithfully represented but has no single quotable line, it is given as a paraphrase with a citation.
St. Basil’s homilies I Will Tear Down My Barns and To the Rich are the tradition’s most sustained treatment of the Rich Fool. God entrusts wealth to the rich for the relief of the poor. Goods kept beyond genuine need are the poor man’s property and not the rich man’s. This is not communism in any modern sense. St. Basil affirms private property and personal responsibility. He insists, however, that ownership is stewardship, not absolute possession, and that the soul that hoards is in moral peril and is not safe.
St. John Chrysostom returns to Lazarus and the Rich Man across his preaching, most powerfully in his series On Wealth and Poverty (seven homilies on Lazarus). There he teaches that the rich man sinned by failing to help the poor man at his own gate, and not by active cruelty. On the Talents (Homilies on Matthew, Hom. 78) he stresses that the unfaithful servant sins by inaction and not by theft. Many Christians fail by neglecting to put their gifts to use, and not by sin in the obvious sense.
St. Gregory’s Forty Gospel Homilies (Homily 9, on the Talents) reads the talents as every gift God entrusts, not money alone. To extend his principle, the gifts entrusted include intelligence, time, education, position, opportunity, and faith, as well as money. Each disciple has a particular set of gifts, and each gives an account in proportion to what was given. The servant with one talent is condemned for failing to use it, and not for having only one.
St. Thomas treats the moral theology of property in Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 66. He draws on the patristic tradition (especially St. Ambrose and St. Basil). He teaches that private ownership is licit, that is, lawful, and even necessary for ordered social life. He also teaches that ownership exists for the universal destination of goods. Goods a person possesses in superabundance are due, by natural law, to the succor of the poor (ST II-II, q. 66, a. 7). And in a case of manifest and urgent necessity, one who takes what is needed to sustain life does not commit theft, because in such necessity all things are common. This teaching does not deny property rights. It gives the framework within which they are rightly understood.
“The seventh commandment forbids unjustly taking or keeping the goods of one’s neighbor and wronging him in any way with respect to his goods. It commands justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the fruits of men’s labor.”
“In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself. The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence …”
“The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities. … Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.”
“Father, all that we have comes from your hand. Tonight as we hear your Son’s parables about wealth and stewardship, give us courage to hear what is hard. Help us to recognize that what you have entrusted to us is for your purposes, not ours alone. Show us how to invest, not bury, what you have given. Open our eyes to the Lazarus at our gate. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Briefly, did you do the concrete act for the wounded person you named last week? What did it teach you?
Jesus returns often to money, possessions, and our responsibility to people in need. He clearly thought the Christian life depends on this topic. Tonight we hear four of his parables about it. They will not be easy to hear. They ask us to look honestly at how we relate to what we have, and to those who have less. The aim is conversion, not guilt.
Have someone read Luke 12:13-21 aloud.
St. Basil the Great preached on this parable in fourth-century Cappadocia, and his teaching is hard to hear and hard to escape. The bread you keep and do not need belongs to the hungry. The cloak in your closet that you do not wear belongs to the naked. The shoes molding in your possession belong to the barefoot. The silver buried in the earth belongs to the destitute. He is making a theological point, not a modern political point about ownership. Goods that exceed our need, and that we have not directed toward those who lack, are not ours in the moral order. We have been entrusted with them.
Q1. On their face, the rich man’s plans are not evil. He stores his crops and plans for the future. Look carefully at his speech in verses 17-19. What is the problem with what he says? [TEXT]
He speaks to his soul as if the abundance in his barns had made it secure. He calls the goods “my grain” and “my goods,” plans many years ahead on the strength of his possessions, and treats wealth as the foundation of the soul’s safety. God’s response overturns every assumption. The wealth is not ultimately his, and the years are not his to plan. God is the true owner, and the man holds his goods as a steward who will give an account (cf. CCC 2404). His ownership is real but not absolute.
Q2. St. Basil teaches that what we have beyond our genuine need belongs, as a moral fact, to those who lack what they need. How does this fit alongside the Catholic affirmation of private property and personal responsibility? [TRADITION]
They fit together, because Catholic teaching affirms both private property as a real good and the universal destination of goods (CCC 2402-2406). Created goods are intended by God for the benefit of all, and ownership is a stewardship under that intention. St. Basil does not deny property. He places it within its theological purpose. Personal responsibility includes using what God has entrusted in a way that serves his purposes for those goods.
Q3. Be honest. In what specific ways have you treated something you possess as if it were ultimately yours rather than entrusted to you? It might be money, time, energy, or talent. This is the rich fool’s question. [LIFE]
This is the convicting question, so ask for honesty. The aim is to bring the underlying disposition to light, and not to extract a list of failures. Most participants have areas where stewardship has slid into ownership. Recognizing this is the first conversion.
Have someone read Luke 16:1-13 aloud. This is one of the more puzzling parables Jesus tells.
Now have someone read Proverbs 19:17 aloud.
Q4. Jesus is plainly not commending the steward’s dishonesty. Read Proverbs 19:17 beside the parable. In its light, what is Jesus commending, and what does “making friends by means of mammon” mean? [TEXT]
He commends the steward’s urgency and his recognition that his position is temporary. The steward used what was about to be taken from him to make friendships that would outlast his job. Proverbs 19:17 explains how this works. Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord himself, who repays. So “making friends by means of mammon” means using temporary wealth now, for the poor, the Church, and the works of mercy, to secure what survives death. Let the group connect the two texts before you summarize.
Q5. Jesus closes with one of the most uncompromising lines in the Gospels: “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Why does he frame the choice as one or the other? What does that imply about the way money works in a soul? [TRADITION]
Jesus frames it this way because money is not neutral. It acts as a rival lord. A person who treats money as the foundation of safety takes the same posture toward it that a worshiper takes toward God. The two cannot occupy the same place in the soul. Jesus does not say you cannot have money. He says you cannot serve it as if it were God. The disciple has to decide which one will be Lord.
Have someone read Matthew 25:14-30 aloud.
St. Gregory the Great preached on the Talents in his Forty Gospel Homilies (Homily 9). He taught that the talents are every gift God has entrusted, not money alone. To extend his insight, the talents include intelligence, time, opportunity, education, position, faith, family, health, and even suffering. Each of us has been entrusted with a set of gifts specific to our life. Do not ask whether you are the five-talent or the one-talent servant. Ask whether you have invested what you have.
Q6. Look at the unfaithful servant’s defense. He calls the master a hard man and says he was afraid. What does fear do to stewardship? Look at what the master says the servant should at least have done (Mt 25:27). What does that tell us about what the master was asking for? [TEXT]
Fear paralyzes. The master says the servant should at least have placed the money with the bankers (Mt 25:27), so even the smallest faithful use would have been accepted. The parable does not say what the master would have told a servant who traded and lost, so do not present an answer to that question as Jesus’ teaching. Keep the group on what is entrusted and whether it is used. The rebuke (“wicked and slothful servant”) stands out because the servant did not steal or squander. He only hid the talent. Failing to act with what God has given is itself a moral failure. Fear is no defense either, because the master is not who the servant said he was. His true character is shown in his generosity to the faithful servants.
Q7. What specific gift has God entrusted to you that you have been burying out of fear? It might be a gift of speech, of presence, of resource, of leadership, of skill, or of faith. What would it look like this week to take a small step toward investing it rather than hiding it? [LIFE]
Ask for specifics. Every participant has at least one buried talent. Common ones in young-adult groups include a gift of teaching not offered and a willingness to lead a study that has been postponed. Others are a generosity delayed until “when I have more,” and a friendship gift kept private. The first investment is small. Taking the first step matters more than how large the investment eventually becomes.
Have someone read Luke 16:19-31 aloud.
Jesus names Lazarus, while the rich man remains unnamed. In life the rich man lives in luxury while Lazarus suffers at his gate. In death their situations are reversed. St. John Chrysostom stresses that the rich man is not accused of active cruelty. His sin is that he did not help the poor man at his own gate.
Q8. The rich man and Lazarus are physically close in life. Lazarus is at the gate. Why does their closeness in life make no difference, and what does that closeness become in eternity? [TEXT]
Proximity without recognition is moral failure. The rich man lived beside Lazarus and never closed the small distance, and in eternity that distance becomes a chasm that cannot be bridged (Lk 16:26). The gap we tolerate in life becomes the gap we cannot cross in death. The places are reversed. Lazarus, kept outside the gate in life, is now inside Abraham’s embrace. The rich man, once inside his comfortable house, is now outside the realm of comfort.
Q9. Who is Lazarus at your gate right now? Answer specifically, and not in the abstract. Who is the person whose hardship is in your line of sight whom you have learned not to see? [LIFE]
Ask for specifics. Lazarus is a person, not a category. He may be a homeless man on a regular route, an aging neighbor, or a coworker going through a divorce. He may be a classmate whose family is collapsing, or a grandparent whose loneliness has been ignored. The parable does its converting work when the person is named.
Q10. Jesus names Lazarus, while the rich man remains unnamed. What is Jesus doing by naming the beggar and not the rich man? [TRADITION]
He reverses the world’s evaluation. In Jesus’ telling the beggar has a name and the rich man does not. Heaven sees what earth misses. God knows by name the ones the world overlooks, while the rich man’s anonymity reflects his culpable neglect, not his wealth as such. Jesus quietly overturns the world’s way of valuing people. He does not claim that poverty alone saves or wealth alone condemns.
Here are three concrete practices for this week. First, identify one specific item or amount you currently treat as yours but could direct toward someone in need, and direct it without waiting. Second, take the buried talent you named in question seven and make one investment with it this week, however small. Third, name the Lazarus at your gate and do one thing this week to recognize him by name: bring him a meal, sit with him, or send him support. The parables will be doing their work in you for the rest of your life. Make a beginning this week.
“Father, you have entrusted us with goods, gifts, time, and opportunities that are not finally ours. Forgive us for the times we have called ‘mine’ what was always yours, and the times we have stepped over Lazarus at our gate without seeing him. Give us courage to invest, not bury, what you have placed in our hands. Make us, this week, faithful stewards of what you have entrusted, and merciful neighbors to those you have placed in our path. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Use any of these as your group has time and interest.
QGD1. Read Matthew 25:31-46 alongside tonight’s parables. The sheep and goats sets the same teaching at the last judgment. How does it confirm and intensify what you have heard? [TEXT]
Matthew 25 makes explicit what the parables imply. The way the disciple treats the poor, hungry, stranger, sick, and imprisoned is the way the disciple treats Christ himself. The Lazarus at your gate is, in moral and spiritual reality, Jesus at your gate, and the consequence at the last judgment is the same as in Luke 16.
QGD2. CCC 2447 calls almsgiving “a work of justice pleasing to God,” as well as an act of charity. Why does the Church frame almsgiving as justice, and what changes when we hear it that way? [TRADITION]
Justice gives what is due. Charity animates justice and goes beyond it, so charity is never an optional extra added once justice is done. Drawing on St. Basil and the universal destination of goods, the tradition teaches that the relief of those in need is, in part, a matter of justice. It is not purely optional generosity. This is not communism. The teaching recognizes that goods exist within God’s providence for the good of all. Hearing almsgiving as justice corrects the temptation to treat all giving as elective.
QGD3. If you are a young adult beginning to earn an income, this is the season in which lifelong patterns of generosity are formed or not formed. What disciplines would you want to put in place now, while it is still relatively easy, that will be much harder later? [LIFE]
Concrete suggestions include a percentage commitment to the parish (CCC 2043 names contribution to the needs of the Church among the precepts) and a regular almsgiving practice. Others are an automatic transfer that happens before spending rises with income, and a rule of life that makes generosity the first call on income instead of the last. What matters is the discipline of generosity, not a particular percentage.
QGD4. CCC 2404 calls every property owner “a steward of Providence.” What changes about your relationship to your possessions when you think of yourself as a steward rather than an owner? [TRADITION]
Stewardship implies accountability. A steward will give an account and holds property under another’s authority and direction, whereas an owner can do as he pleases. The tradition refuses the language of absolute ownership and places all human possession within God’s prior ownership. This view is more serious than secular ownership, not less, because the steward’s use will be evaluated.
Primary parables: Luke 12:13-21 | Luke 16:1-13 | Matthew 25:14-30 (with Luke 19:11-27) | Luke 16:19-31
Old Testament background: Psalm 49 | Proverbs 19:17 | Deuteronomy 15:7-11 | Isaiah 58:6-7 | Sirach 29:8-13
New Testament support: Matthew 6:19-21 | Matthew 25:31-46 | 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19 | James 5:1-6
Catechism: CCC 2401, 2402, 2404, 2447
Sources cited: St. Basil the Great, I Will Tear Down My Barns and To the Rich | St. John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty and Homilies on Matthew, Hom. 78 | St. Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 9 | St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 66.