QUESTION:

“For the sons of this world are shrewder in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light (Luke 16:8). Is Jesus recommending cunning rationality to the sons of light? How do you evaluate the cunning rationality to which the poor and the ordinary are subjected to? Are we simply victims of the brilliant and the bright ones?

Johns Sebastian

ANSWER: Jacob Parappally MSFS

We live in a world where the cunning rationality of some exploit and victimize a large number of people. Those who have power and money do all types of manipulations to secure even more power in all aspects of their lives. Their cunning rationality devises many and varied shrewd ways to deceive the gullible people to secure power and also to remain in power. They feed people with the crumbs that fall from their ill-gotten riches or if they hold political power they make policies that would benefit mostly themselves and those who have promoted them to secure power. They feed the poor with false promises and evoke sentiments of regard and appreciation for them through rhetoric which makes blatant lies appear true to the listeners, false promises as realities they are going to benefit in the nearest future. Cunning rationality often wins! But at what cost? At the cost of true humanity! Such cunning rationality reduces the humanity of those who use it for exploiting others as well as its victims.
The question is whether Jesus approves the cunning rationality of the shrewd manager in the gospel according to Luke, chapter 16 while he recognizes that this man is worldly wise and shrewd. It is in the context of Jesus’ teaching on the choices humans make concerning the purpose of their existence in this world and their final destiny that he observes that one has to choose between God or money, While choosing God makes one dependent on God and follow God’s command of loving others with self-emptying love and generosity and living in dignity as a child of God choosing money or Mammon that gives one power to play the role of a false god who dominates, controls, exploits bolster the ego of the one who holds such power. Unfortunately, we find a minority of such people whether in the secular or the religious sphere, individually and as institutions who continue to use money-power to assert their domination over the weak and the poor.

Cunning Rationality Dehumanizes
Cunningness is defined as skill to achieve one’s end by deception. Jesus cannot advocate the use of cunning rationality for his followers because cunning rationality is a perversion of the right use of human reason for the unfolding of humans as humans. Cunningness is a perversion of the God-given gift of reason to humans to use it in freedom to become what they are called to become. They are to become the image of God the Absolute communion and promote communion among all people. It is a gift to recognize what is necessary for humans to grow as human persons. The misuse of this gift leads only to the loss of the humanity of humans. The use of cunning rationality is a one-way road to self-destruction and the destruction of others.
How unfortunate it is that this cunning rationality is used by some to secure immediate and easy benefits at the expense of others especially the poor and those who are innocent or naïve to believe those who use their cunningness to exploit them. In every sphere of life we find such people who have no qualms of conscience to use their skill for communication, using sugar coated words, false promises, pretentions, lies, diplomacy etc. to make their victims believe that they are being helped by these fraudsters. They appear sometimes as saviours of the deprived and disadvantaged people by convincing their victims they can be trusted by securing some cheap benefits for them. Once the victims are mesmerized by those who use their cunning intelligence they let themselves be exploited by these children of the world. From time to time we hear the news about some money-chain companies and other financial enterprises with high-sounding names and tempting offers who have deceived thousands of people and have escaped with the hard-earned money of the depositors. All of those victims were lured by the prospects of securing high interests for fulfilling their dreams of owning a house or gaining financial security for the future of their children or for themselves after retirement etc. Eventually, by the cunning intelligence of those fraudsters they are deprived of their hard-earned money as well as their dignity as they would be blamed by their own family and friends for being naïve in trusting those people who cheated them. Some victims even go to the extent of committing suicide when they hear that they are deceived by the financial companies.
It is not only in the sphere of financial dealings cunning rationality is used but also in the spheres of politics and religion. Political parties all over the world use cunning rationalism to secure power through various foul means. In our times disseminating fake news, half-truths, feeding with empty promises especially those who look for better prospects in their lives or looking to come out of their poverty and misery, buying elected members of other parties, dividing, denigrating and demonizing the leaders of other political parties by the use of propaganda machinery to the full and even using violence to polarize communities in the name of religion, caste, ethnicity, language etc., and even by eliminating political leaders who oppose the ruling parties have become the order of the day
It is an affront to God, when religious leaders use cunning rationalism to exploit believers. Superstitious and meaningless rituals and practices are imposed on the believers in the name of God threatening them with the curse of God or eternal punishment if they do not follow them. Thus religious beliefs are manipulated for securing financial gains for the priestly classes and those associated with them. Jewish religion had reached such decadence at the time of Jesus and the Temple of God at Jerusalem had become a den of robbers whose cunning rationalism exploited especially the poorest of the poor. With prophetic courage Jesus cleansed the temple incurring the wrath of the ruling priestly class. Jesus had to pay with his life for this prophetic action. There are many such temples of all religions turned into dens of robbers all over this earth. Along with the true children of light who worship God in Spirit and in Truth there are also the children of the world in all religions. Certainly, the children of this world use their cunning rationality to oppress and exploit the children of light even in their own and in other religions as well as others who are without any religious affiliation.

Rationality that liberates
Jesus denounced blind beliefs as well as the following of meaningless ritual practices of the established religion of his time. Constantly he asked his disciples and his other followers to use their capacity for reasoning. Not only the use of cunning rationality t but also the blind acceptance of beliefs and practices without using the God-given capacity to discern what is good for the integral growth of humans and not using one’s rationality kills the inner reality of a person. Jesus told the disciples not to be afraid of those who kill the body but their soul or the inner reality of their being. Irrationality kills the spirit. It enslaves humans and makes them believe in all types of fundamentalism including religious fundamentalism. An observing, reasoning and reflecting person who reasons out with the use of right reasoning and principles only can work for unity, love, justice, peace equality, communion among all people without any type of discrimination. It may look foolish for those who use cunning rationality for their own private advantage. When someone uses his or her rationality rightly that person touches not only everything true, beautiful and good in all humans but also she/he touches God. Jesus wants the children of light to be challenged by the children of this world to be a counter-witness to them. In our times, it is similar to saying that a Christian must live his Christian values with the passion of a suicide-bomber of a terror organization. Such a comparison is not justifying suicide-bombing or terrorism but the admirable passion and commitment of a person to do something terribly wrong should challenge others to do something absolutely right and meaningful for humanity.
When Jesus asked his disciples to “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” ( Matthew 6:26) or to look at the lilies of the field to see how God adorns them with beauty, he is asking them think about the truth about God’s care for each human being who is greater and more valuable than any other creatures. Jesus way of teaching in parables which are all open-ended invite the listener to think or use their capacity for reasoning to draw right conclusions for their life. A religion that negates reasoning and freedom is no religion at all. Any blind follower of Jesus is no follower at all. Every disciple must choose in freedom to follow Jesus and use his or her rationality in living the values of Jesus and witnessing to him. Its logic is different from the logic of this world or the logic of the children of the world. Its logic is in centring on Christ rather than self-centring, in giving rather than in receiving, in dying for other rather than in preserving life at the cost of others. In this, the cunning rationality of this world may appear far superior by its own logic but for the children of light the paradox of Christian life is truly liberating and meaningful.

Living with Paradoxes
This world is not the real world of God’s dream. It is an underworld. It runs on deception. Its rational way of living and dealing is with cunning rationalism. Its motivation is to dominate and control, to subjugate and victimize and to exploit others to the maximum for one’s own personal comforts and for bolstering one’s false ego with a false sense of superiority over others. In this situation are we victims of those who use their cunning rationality to exploit and subjugate others? Certainly, not! As in the parable of wheat and weeds , God lets the weeds grow along with the wheat till the end of time. So the cunning rationality that exploits, dehumanizes, and kills will continue till the end of the human race (Matthew 13: 24-30). But at the same time the disciples of Jesus are called to practice the values of the Kingdom of God with more passion using their reason to actualize them in their challenging and difficult situations of life using their right reason.
According to Viktor Frankl who survived the Nazi concentration camp, there is the last freedom of humans which cannot be taken away by anyone even by the cruellest dictator. The children of light, in Jesus’ teachings, are those who do not compromise the values of the kingdom for anything in this world. For the children of this world this may appear as utter foolishness as they acquire wealth, position and power to further their situation through their cunning rationality. The children of light use their rationality not to deceive others or to subjugate others but to discover the mystery of themselves and find themselves in their right relationship with others, God and nature. Jesus challenges the children of light or persons who are committed to live the values of justice, love, equality, reconciliation, peace etc. to learn to strive passionately to actualize these values to build the society of God’s kingdom with the power of the Spirit just as the children of this world do to achieve their ends.