The parable of the dishonest steward is unsettling: Christ seems to praise a man who manipulates and bargains in order to secure his future. Yet the heart of the teaching is not dishonesty, but prudence—the ability to order one’s life with foresight, to use what is passing in order to secure what endures.
For the Cistercian fathers, such prudence is nothing less than the art of conversion. St. Bernard reminds us that “the true monk is one who measures all things against eternity.” The steward acts urgently because he knows his time is short; the monk too must live with this holy urgency, recognizing that possessions, influence, and status are fleeting tools to be surrendered or rightly used in pursuit of the Kingdom.
Luke concludes with the stark saying: “You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.” In the cloister, this is made visible through poverty freely chosen, through simplicity of life, through the common use of goods. The monk learns to serve God with an undivided heart, so that even material resources become occasions of charity rather than chains of self-interest.
This parable, then, is not about worldly cunning, but about vigilance: a call to order every moment, every resource, toward Christ. As the Rule says, “Let nothing be preferred to the love of Christ.”