NUMBERS  GAME

[This is a homily  story  for our Teen Mass. It's  for this  25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C - and it's a reflection bouncing off Jesus' Parable about the dishonest steward - Luke 16: 1-13]

It all started in Little League.

He was good with statistics - and spread sheets - and with his computer - so the coach asked him to keep statistics for the team for the year.

The first time he changed the numbers was from 5 games earlier. “Who would remember that?” he thought. He had struck out 3 times in that game  - and he didn’t like it. He changed it to 2 strike outs. That other strike out he changed to an infield out.

Nobody noticed it - so a week later he changed the results of a game from two weeks earlier from a ground ball out  he had made to a single. Nobody noticed that either.

His average crept up slowly. He was smart. He was clever. He was not that good a hitter - but he had become a .247 hitter - just by a slight change here and a slight change there. Nobody noticed what he was doing.

At home his older sister Ruth got a dollar more a week in allowance than he did. He didn’t think this was fair. So  if he saw his father’s wallet or his mother’s purse just sitting there he would steal a dollar from it. He’d say to himself, “Fair is fair! After all Ruth is getting a dollar more a week than me. That just isn’t fair.” As far as he knew, he never got caught…..

In school, he wasn’t the best in the class in spelling - but he was good. He envied Judy - as well as Jason - both always did better than he did in spelling. So he kept tiny pieces of paper with big words on them - under his watch - words the teacher told them to memorize. Then  whenever there was a spelling quiz, he would slip the tiny papers out from under his watch out when the teacher wasn’t looking.

He found himself doing the same thing - using little pieces of paper - to cheat in social studies and math as well. He never got caught.

He said to himself that he was  good - maybe the best in the class - in cheating - but then he thought, “There are no marks for who is the best cheater. Bummer….”

He did this all the way through - early school - middle school - and high school.

At restaurants in his senior year in high school - as well as in college - he came up with a neat trick. Whenever he and his friends were walking out through a restaurant - he would always go last from their table heading towards the front of the restaurant - letting his friends go ahead of him. If he spotted on a table on the way out a tip of a few dollar bills that a waiter or waitress hadn’t picked up yet - he would stop at that table and pick up a plate and move it to the edge of the table  as if he were helping the waitress or waiter. Meanwhile, he would cup a dollar bill from the few dollar bill tip that was still sitting there.

In college he was very clever in getting class papers on line - plagiarizing - and then changing words and word patterns - and no professor ever caught on. 

For his college degree - he went for accounting - knowing that he was good with numbers - all his life.

He got a job right after college as an accountant. The company he worked for did audits - check ups on the books and bills and  receipts of small companies - and he was good - very good - in spotting when anyone else was cheating.

He was in a parking lot once - and spotted a car - in a handicap parking spot. The side  window was open. There was a handicap thing on the dashboard. It should have  hung on the car rear view mirror. He looked both ways - thinking to himself - I always wanted one of these - and he ended up taking it and then using it for years. Whenever he used it - he would get out of his car and walk with a fake limp into a store or a movie or the mall.

When he used it with friends - they would kid him - and he’d say, “You always have to have an edge!”

He started dating a wonderful girl. Just when they were about to get serious, she sensed something was hidden about him. She stepped back - and started to notice he was always cautious and sneaky - like with his handicap sign.  She finally said to him, “What would happen if there were 3 handicap spots and only one was open and you took it and a  truly handicapped person couldn’t park? How would you feel about that?”

He said, “Come on, everybody tries to get an edge. It’s the name of the game.” 

So she backed back - and started seeing him less and less. In fact, she started seeing someone else - without telling him. When he found out, he was angry and said, “You are cheating on me!”  

She walked away - red faced - silent - and furious. Three days later she left him a voice message - knowing when he wouldn’t be able to pick up his phone telling him: “That’s it. We wouldn’t work together. Sorry!”

He was devastated. This was the first time he felt the impact of being on the other side of being cheating.

He went to church - Mass - from time to time - but always snook out ahead of every one else before the end of the Mass. He’d smile - getting out ahead even of those who snook out early - because he was in the handicap section of the church parking lot.

Something inside him itched. Something inside him made him feel uneasy - and uncomfortable with life. In general, he found himself unable to look people in the eye.

He met another gal - fell in love and in time got married. They had 3 kids. Years later he caught his daughter stealing from his wallet. And when he confronted her, she said, “Well you’ve been cheating with your handicap parking sign all these years.”

That got him thinking - but just a tiny bit.

Then it hit him big time - his cheating patterns. It was a Sunday - the every 3 years - when Catholics hear at mass the story about the man who was cheating on his boss and got caught - and would lose his job - so he changed the numbers on how much different folks owed his boss.

When it came time to fire him his boss said, “I’m firing you - but I have to admit - you are sharp when it comes to  knowing how people operate. Why don’t you use your talents to be an honest person?”

That day he stayed in church till the final verse of the final hymn and that day was the last time he ever cheated - tossing away his handicap sign and not parking there any more.

Inside his heart and mind - after that Sunday - he felt better inside himself - and his wife and family noticed the change - even more.