What Jesus meant in one parable's comment

Mark Shea on his blog writes of one of the more puzzling of the parables of Jesus, and especially with the moral Jesus states as summary:

The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. (Luke 16:8)

I tried to register there but got the white screen of being annoyed and ignored, as happens fairly often on my computer systems, for reasons I will leave you to fill in the blank.

What Jesus said is actually not as obscure as it seems. He is making the observation that people who understand God and his will, "the sons of light," are often not as adept at dealing with world events and circumstances as are people who are focused on material reality "the sons of this world." Those who are focused on God "the sons of light" are often kind of inept at dealing with hard realities. We've seen how poorly the Church deals with certain secular issues throughout its past. Yet the Church has been blessed with "men of the world" who are both canny people and saints. St. Paul is the obvious first example. He was the first who was a man of the world, "a son of this world" and yet became one of the "sons of light." St. Paul knew his way around the world alright, and knew full well how to deal with that generation. It's for a reason that St. Peter became the first Pope and establish the foundational rock, while St. Paul was the great architect of the outreach body of the Church.

Hope this helps.