Jesus told his followers, “There was once a wealthy man whose household manager was accused of wasting his possessions.
The rich man called him in and said, ‘What is this I’m hearing about you? Hand over the records of your work, because you can no longer be my manager.’
The manager thought, ‘What am I going to do now? My boss is firing me. I’m not strong enough to dig ditches, and I’m too ashamed to beg.
I know what I’ll do—so that when I lose this job, people will welcome me into their homes.’
He called in each of his master’s debtors. To the first he asked, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
‘A hundred jugs of olive oil,’ the man replied. The manager said, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’
Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A hundred sacks of wheat,’ he replied. The manager said, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’
The master praised the dishonest manager for acting so shrewdly. For the people of this world are often more resourceful in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light.
“I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends, so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into lasting dwellings.
Whoever can be trusted with a little can also be trusted with much; and whoever is dishonest with a little will be dishonest with much.
If you haven’t been trustworthy with worldly riches, who will trust you with true riches?
And if you haven’t been faithful with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and mocked him.
He said to them, “You are the ones who try to make yourselves look good in people’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. What people prize highly is detestable in God’s sight.
The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since then, the good news of God’s kingdom is preached, and everyone is trying to get in by force.
But it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest stroke of a letter in the Law to drop out.
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
“There was a rich man who dressed in fine clothes and enjoyed luxury every day.
At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who longed to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The poor man died and was carried by angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
In the place of the dead, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus beside him.
He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I’m in agony in this flame.’
But Abraham replied, ‘Child, remember that during your life you had your good things, and Lazarus had bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to cross from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross from there to us.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house—
for I have five brothers—so that he can warn them, so they won’t also come to this place of torment.’
Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; they should listen to them.’
‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
This is the Patristics text that appears when you select Patristics.
