Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 5:1-13
Mass: Amos 8:4-7; Resp Ps 113; 1 Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13

Blessed be the name of the Lord both now and forever.

There is more than one conclusion to be drawn from today's Gospel parable of the dishonest steward, who, about to be fired from his job, decides to make amends for misusing his boss's property. The servant did not see his boss as his master; his master had become accumulated wealth, acquired dishonestly.

The conclusion that I reflect upon is one given in a footnote in my New American Bible (NAB). It draws from Lk 16:13 where Jesus says: No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. A conclusion given in an NAB footnote is a "general statement about the incompatibility of serving God and being a slave to riches. To be dependent upon wealth is opposed to the teachings of Jesus who counseled complete dependence on the Father as one of the characteristics of the Christian disciple (Lk 12:22-39)."

Riches or mammon come in all shapes and sizes put well by Tadeusz Dajczer (quoted in Magnificat, September 2019, p. 315): "What can this mammon that enslaves your heart be? It can be material as well as spiritual goods. For example, it can be attachment to money … to your work, or to something you are presently creating or working on. It may be attachment … even to one's own perfection … As a human being you can choose to attach yourself to the one reality and only reality-the will of God."

So, we might ask ourselves a question posed by St Benedict in the Prologue of the Holy Rule where he quotes the psalmist: "Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days? (Ps 33[34]:13)" (Prol. 15). One way to go about that is to divest ourselves of our attachments in whatever shape or size they present themselves. We can also be about yearning for life and good days by turning to today's passage from the Holy Rule, taken from Ch 5 "Obedience". There, we are instructed to "no longer live by our own judgement, giving in to our whims and appetites, but rather walk according to another's decision and directions …" (RB 5:12). People of this resolve, Benedict tell us, "conform to the saying of the Lord: I have come not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me (Jn 6:38)" (RB 5:13).

We pray for ourselves, and for one another, that we attach ourselves to the one and only reality-the will of God.

SEEK GOD'S KINGDOM, AND THESE OTHER THINGS WILL BE GIVEN YOU BESIDES. DO NOT BE AFRAID ANY LONGER, LITTLE FLOCK, FOR YOUR FATHER IS PLEASED TO GIVE YOU THE KINGDOM. SELL YOUR BELONGINGS AND GIVE ALMS. PROVIDE MONEY BAGS FOR YOURSELVES THAT DO NOT WEAR OUT,  AN INEXHAUSTIBLE TREASURE IN HEAVEN THAT NO THIEF CAN REACH NOR MOTH DESTROY. FOR WHERE YOU TREASURE IS, THERE ALSO YOUR HEART WILL BE.

(Lk 12:31-34)

It is love that impels us to pursue everlasting life.

(RB 5:10)

Today's photo: Compliments of our chaplain. An elk who visited us yesterday with a herd of 14.

© Gertrude Feick 2019