Luke - Chapter 16

Passage

And he also said to his disciples: There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the steward was accused to him of wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him: What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship: for you can be steward no longer. And the steward said within himself: What shall I do, because my lord is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. Therefore, calling together each one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first: How much do you owe my lord? And he said: A hundred barrels of oil. And he said to him: Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another: And how much do you owe? And he said: A hundred measures of wheat. He said to him: Take your bill and write eighty. And the lord praised the unjust steward because he had acted shrewdly: for the children of this world are shrewder in their generation than the children of light. And I say to you: Make friends for yourselves with the mammon of iniquity: so that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings. Whoever is faithful in what is least is faithful also in what is greater: and whoever is unjust in what is little is unjust also in what is greater. If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon, who will trust you with what is true? And if you have not been faithful in what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other: or he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now the Pharisees, who were greedy, heard all these things: and they mocked him. And he said to them: You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination before God. The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the kingdom of God is preached: and everyone uses force to enter it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Everyone who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery: and whoever marries her who is put away from her husband commits adultery. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted splendidly every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, Longing to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. And no one gave him any: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it happened that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in hell. And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom: And he cried and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame. And Abraham said to him: Son, remember that you received good things in your lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is fixed a great chasm: so that those who would pass from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross from there to us. And he said: Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house, For I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, and they also may not come into this place of torments. And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. But he said: No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance. And he said to him: If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rises again from the dead.