Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Soft Slavery

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 11-6-2021 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

THIRTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

LUKE 16:9-15

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that we cannot serve two masters; we cannot serve both God and mammon. It’s about what precisely has our ultimate focus, our ultimate attention. Jesus sets up the either/or here so starkly because he’s compelling us to choose. What is it finally that masters you? Or, flip it around: Of what, finally, are you a slave?

If we are slaves of mammon—an Aramaic word meaning money, wealth, or material things—we belong to mammon first, our lives revolve around it, and then it comes to dominate us. As money and security come fully into focus, God necessarily goes into soft focus, into the background.

If we make wealth and security our center, we will be empty. Jesus calls us to make God the center of our lives, so that we will be spiritually ordered in Christ’s image.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth,
so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
The person who is trustworthy in very small matters
is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small matters
is also dishonest in great ones.
If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth,
who will trust you with true wealth?
If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another,
who will give you what is yours?
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.”

The Pharisees, who loved money,
heard all these things and sneered at him.
And he said to them,
“You justify yourselves in the sight of others,
but God knows your hearts;
for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”+++