25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
“You cannot be the slave both of God and money.” In this passage Jesus highlights the importance of being ‘trustworthy & faithful.’ ‘The man who can be trusted in little things, can be trusted in great.’ The parable tries to explain how God expects his disciples to use wealth, as to receiving a true reward in heaven. One’s own wealth really belongs to another, namely God. By treating money as your own, ends up by trusting in wealth, rather in the God who allowed you to have that money.
The manager’s behaviour in the parable seems to be dishonest and self-centred at first, always thinking about himself, asking the question ‘What shall I do?’ But the manager was trying to change his ways. He was basically the ‘middle man’ for his masters business. He would add on a lump sum, on top of item prices, to make a nice bonus of the sale item. When the manager was told, he was getting the sack, he started to panic and decided to contact his masters customers, telling them of the reduce price as he removed his additional bonus from their bill. I guess, it is like going to an expensive restaurant and when it is time to pay, you notice a ‘service charge’ that has been automatically added, and we start to grumble and moan, wondering if we have to pay this unreasonable extra amount.
There is a link here to our first reading in the Book of Amos. God is warning the Israelites who were trampling on the needy, by raising up the shekel and tampering with the weights on the weighing scales.
God said he will bring judgement to the Israelites since they have failed to love their neighbour because they were abusing the poor. They failed to love God since they were worshipping false gods in their money and wealth.
What can we take away from the Gospel parable today? Jesus wants us to use the same effort on building up heavenly things as we would normally do towards earthly materials. If we use the same zeal into the affairs of our soul, we would then become strong and trustworthy in faith for the Lord.
Jesus explains that God is a merciful father, and even when we are being a slave to money, we can change our ways, by repenting and practicing the virtues of the faith. As we know, striving to help the poor in almsgiving or giving to other charitable organisations is so important. This was the case for Zacchaeus the Chief Tax Collector, who undertook to restore fourfold anything he had unjustly taken, he also gave half his wealth to the poor. The Lord declared on that day, salvation had come to that house.
So, how should we behave? We have been told the answer within our second reading. St Paul says: ‘First of all, there should be prayers offered for everyone. So that we may be able to live religious and reverent lives.’
These prayers will allow us to see that everything is a gift from God, and the Holy Spirit will guide our hearts towards works of charity.
Our service to the Lord Jesus requires us, to direct all our daily efforts and actions towards him. As Christians we shouldn’t divide our time between God and money. Everything we do should be to the service of God and to our neighbour, in faithfulness and right conduct.
It is only through the grace of the Holy Spirit that we can give our total commitment to God and have a healthy detachment from material goods. With prayer and thanksgiving, we can see the bigger picture, enabling us to focus on our heavenly rewards, building up our relationship with the Lord.
We do it, because we love Him, unconditionally, with all our hearts, for the Glory of God the Father and through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to the praise and honour of His Holy Name.
Rev. Fr Philip Wrigley's Blog 