This is the challenge we have to face in this life. Christ told us in no uncertain terms that we should “be shrewd as a serpent, yet innocent as a dove.” (Mt 10,16) And that’s because in this life we cannot avoid having to deal with evil in many of its forms. We just have to learn how to go along with them without compromising what truly is essential in our life.
The parable of the dishonest steward (cfr. Lk 16,1-8) dramatizes well how these seemingly contrasting qualities can be combined. A steward was about to be dismissed by his master for squandering the master’s property. So, what he did to be able to survive was to ingratiate himself with his master’s debtors such that when he would finally be dismissed, he would still find work among the debtors. The parable ended with the master commending the steward for acting prudently.
Pope Francis once said that priests as shepherds should smell like the sheep. Otherwise, they cannot be considered as good shepherds. We have to know how to be worldly wise, street smart, versatile, and adaptive to any person and situation, without compromising our Christian identity.
We need to have a good and realistic attitude toward the world. We have to love it the way Christ loved it. After all, of it he said: “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” (Jn 3,16)
But we also have to be careful with it because of its bad elements which are the effects of our sins. Christ's warning was in these words: “What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mk 8,36)
We have to learn how to be shrewd, always discerning things properly and not afraid to get down and dirty, if need be, as long as the integrity of one's Christian life is not compromised.
In fact, in one instance, Christ went to the extent of telling us to pluck an eye or cut an arm if they become occasions of sin. But, obviously, we have to do this with due prudence.
To be sure, simplicity is not naiveté. It is not an excuse to escape from the world and to isolate oneself. It just means we have to know how to stick by God's laws no matter how difficult a situation may be. It's a matter of conviction that knows how to reinvent itself without compromising its essence as the need arises. It knows how to be flexible, adaptable, and versatile. This is precisely the shrewdness of simplicity.
We get complicated when we detach ourselves from God and would just depend on our own brilliant ideas. In this case, we become very vulnerable to fall into deceit and duplicity, to having unfair ulterior motives, as we get more concerned with our own interests rather than with the common good. We get complicated when we are afraid to suffer for truth, justice, mercy, in short, for love of God and others.
Being complicated springs from self-righteousness as well as reinforces it. It can be so bad as to go to the extent of making oneself his own god, creating one's own reality, his own law that defines what is good and bad, right and wrong.
Being complicated only shows one does not have faith or, at least, has a weak or distorted faith. That's why he considers the word of God as ineffective to tackle the challenges of life.