“Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.”

“For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of the light.” (Lk 16:8b) The children of this world are constantly making deals and helping each other grow in wealth. We, the children of God’s light and love, are called to help each other to grow in spiritual wealth, but Jesus chides his disciples for being slow in understanding this.

Anyone in America who wants to grow honest wealth knows that they need to be savvy in getting the best deal, be disciplined in their investments, take risks and be wise in their financial management, constantly learning and net-working with others.

Jesus calls us to do the same with our spiritual wealth, but he puts a strange twist on it in today’s Gospel, so that we might think more deeply about it. He wants us to use “dishonest wealth” to become more spiritually wealthy.

Honest wealth comes from working hard, managing our money well and networking with others. “Dishonest wealth” comes to us when we inherit money or win the lottery. In a sense, this is “dishonest wealth” because we did not earn it.

This “dishonest wealth” is an inherited gift very similar to the gift of God’s grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ and his saintly people. Jesus Christ won all grace by his perfect life of obedience to the Father in what he taught, how he suffered and his death upon the cross, in order to rise to eternal life and distribute the Father’s graces to his people through his Church and his Saints.

We know that someday we will die and be held accountable for the natural and supernatural gifts that we have received, and how we used our time, talent and treasure, much like the steward in today’s gospel who was called by the master to end his job and give a full account of his work.

The steward knew his work was imperfect, so he helped others by reducing their debt with the wealth of his master. When his master discovered this, he commended him for acting prudently. We too are imperfect, but we can use God’s gifts in a way to help those suffering on earth and the suffering souls in purgatory, asking them to pray for us.

Anytime we offer up our pain, or humiliation or sacrifice for the poor and the souls in purgatory, we are purified and draw closer to the fullness of heaven. We can ask those souls in purgatory (which will be most people unless they are saints like Mother Theresa or Carlo Acutis or Padre Pio who had the stigmata – the wounds of Christ – on his hands, feet and side for 50 years!) to pray for us. Most people will have to spend much time in purgatory, especially those who are complacent.

Recall that Jesus tells his disciples, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.” (Lk 6:36) And that means we have a long way to go to avoid all sins, and to make satisfaction for our past sins.

Yet, we can ask Christ and his Saints to help us avoid purgatory by helping us seek a plenary indulgence for our own soul and the suffering souls in purgatory. The souls in purgatory have not used their God given gifts sufficiently to attain the fullness of heaven, but we can help them, and our-selves, by striving and hopefully attaining and applying a plenary indulgence to them.

A plenary indulgence is the complete forgiveness or remission of punishment due to sins which have already been confessed but have not been fully satisfied with the reparation necessary for that soul to enter the full-ness of heaven. As Catholics, we can help those souls enter into heaven by applying to them a plenary indulgence by following the Pope’s guide-lines, who is the Vicar of Christ on earth.

Pope Francis, former Vicar of Christ on earth, said we can seek a plenary indulgence daily by accomplishing these five steps: 1). make a good confession (good for 21 days, which means confessing the kind and number of mortal sins committed, or mortal sins omitted (like missing Sunday Mass when able to attend), since your last good confession; 2). Receive holy communion in the state of grace; 3). Pray for the Pope’s good intentions: 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, and 1 Glory Be; 4). Do the indulgent work on the same day as your Holy Communion which includes one of the follow-ing: pray the family rosary, or in front of the tabernacle; read sacred scripture prayerfully for 30 minutes; or pray the stations of the cross. The last and most difficult step,5). be detached from all sins, even venial sins. That means detest-ing any of the temptations that past sins elicit. If we fail in doing any step completely, we still gain a partial indulgence because of God’s great mercy for us in Jesus Christ and his Church.

Jesus warns that many will not do penance but rather seek worldly wealth and comfort, especially by compromising the truth; whereas his disciples will seek spiritual treasures that will help them attain the fullness of heaven for themselves and their loved ones by following the Catholic faith.

Jesus said emphatically, “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be de-voted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon” – mammon is the prestige and comfort of the passing world that does not directly serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Read more about plenary and partial indulgences online and how a person can tap into someone else’s spiritual wealth. When we think about it, we realize what a beautiful gift it is, and how some men and women are called to the religious life to pursue this life of penance and draw down the saving grace of God’s mercy upon their families, friends and the entire pilgrim church.

For this reason, families and parishes should be supportive of religious vocations and priestly vocations, because together, we can grow the spiritual wealth of knowing, loving and serving God and his plan of salvation for the human family.

Peace in Christ,

Fr. Thomas McCabe