Our three Scripture readings today can be classified in the following way: what has been in the past; what should be in the present; what could be in the future.

During the time of the prophet Amos, God’s people were enjoying a period of great prosperity, but at the same time there was widespread corruption and immorality among them. Sound familiar? Even during "bad economic times," we are still the most prosperous nation on the planet; and yet, there is widespread immorality and corruption in our culture right now— and only a fool or mentally unbalanced person would try to deny it.

At the time of Amos, the corrupt people were saying, "When will the new moon be over, that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating." In other words, "When can we suspend our religious observance and go back to our old, corrupt practices?" What concerns me is that a similar attitude may take hold of some Americans in the aftermath of these terrorist attacks: "When will the present crisis be over, so that we can get out of church and go back to our old sins?"

The cultural decay which occurred in Israel (in spite of their prosperity), and the cultural decay which has occurred in our own country (in spite of our great prosperity): this is what has been.

Which brings us to our second reading. Here we are told what should be in the present. And what an incredibly prophetic text this is! It sounds like it was written sometime between September 11^th and today, although it was actually penned almost 2,000 years ago. (It just goes to show how timeless God’s Word is!)

People are wondering, "What should we do as individual in response to these terrorist attacks? What should be our attitude?"

Well, the Holy Spirit—through St. Paul—has answered those questions for us right here in this passage. St. Paul writes, "Beloved: First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior . . ."

Our response, our attitude must be rooted in prayer. Prayer is primary; prayer is foundational; prayer is key—especially for those in authority, who are currently making decisions which will directly affect the lives of people both in the United States and throughout the world for decades to come. But this needs to be sincere prayer, not what I would call "mercenary prayer." Sincere prayer is prayer which comes from a devoted, loving heart: "Dear God I love you and I want to live my life for you, please help me." Mercenary prayer is prayer in which a person tries to "buy God off": "Dear God, I know you don’t hear from me too often, but I’m coming to you now because I’m in big trouble and I need something. Give me what I want, and give it to me quickly, so I can go back to my old way of living."

I hope that all those who have been interceding for our nation since September 11^th have been engaged in "sincere prayer" and not "mercenary prayer." Because God knows the difference!

And if our prayer is truly sincere, it will include a desire for the salvation of EVERYONE—even our enemies! That’s the will of God, according to St. Paul. Listen again to his words: "This [kind of prayer] is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth." In last week’s Prayer of the Faithful I had this petition: "For the conversion of our enemies, and for our own deepening conversion to Christ and his Gospel." Keep in mind: if our enemies convert, they will recognize the wrong they’ve done to us and be filled with repentance. If they don’t convert, they will continue in their evil ways. So for that reason alone—but not only for that reason—we must pray for them.

Which brings us to the Gospel text we just heard from Luke 16, and to what could be in the future. I’ve read several different interpretations of this story, but here’s the one that I think makes the most sense, and has the most relevance for all of us:

After he was caught, the unjust steward knew he couldn’t change the past, as much as he might have wanted to. He could not go back in time and change all the dishonest and deceitful business deals he’d made in his master’s name. He was a realist, and he knew that the past was forever in the past. But—to his great credit—he decided to make the best of a bad situation by doing some good and preventing things from getting any worse. And his master commends him for this. He does not commend him for his past dishonesty, but he does give him credit for being enterprising and acting prudently under the circumstances.

And what was it that he did? Very simply, the steward called in all his master’s debtors and settled accounts with them by taking from them only the goods they owed the master and forgetting about his own "commission." You see, it was very common for stewards like this to charge exorbitant amounts of interest to their master’s debtors—interest which they would happily pocket for themselves. Prudently, this man decided to forget about his personal profit in order to appease his master and preserve what remained of his own reputation.

We cannot change the past in any way. We cannot reach back in time and magically undo the decay that’s occurred in our culture. We cannot magically erase the evil we have done; and, sadly, we cannot undo the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

But we can do what the unjust steward did—and more! For a brief time—just for a brief time—this steward stopped thinking only of his himself and acted prudently to improve his relationship with his master and with his master’s debtors. We, on the other hand, can make a permanent change in our lives and resolve, from this day forward, to stop thinking of ourselves first. We can make the commitment to put God in that position (where he belongs) and our neighbor in second place (where he belongs).

The unjust steward made his relationship with his master a little better by giving up his commission, but we can do something far greater: we can totally heal our relationship with our God, by seeking his forgiveness for every sin we’ve ever committed, and by receiving that forgiveness in the sacrament of Confession.

The steward’s change of heart was partial at best; but we can allow our heart to be radically converted, and can start taking our Catholic faith more seriously than ever.

The events of September 11^th cannot be changed; but we can allow ourselves to be changed! We can work to improve our relationships with members of our families, with our co-workers, and with our friends. We can put our lives in order; we can reprioritize.

This is what could be—and what should be—and what must be if our culture is to be renewed in the third millennium.