10th November >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 16:9-15 for Saturday, Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time: ‘You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’. (2024)

10th November >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 16:9-15 for Saturday, Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time: ‘You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’.

Saturday, Thirty First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Luke 16:9-15

Use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity. The man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great. If then you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches? And if you cannot be trusted with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?

‘No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.’

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and laughed at him. He said to them, ‘You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as virtuous in people’s sight, but God knows your hearts. For what is thought highly of by men is loathsome in the sight of God.’

Gospel (USA)

Luke 16:9-15

If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?

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.”

Reflections (5)

(i) Saturday, Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel reading Jesus declares, ‘You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’. Saint Paul could never have been described as a slave of money. Yet, in today’s first reading, Paul recognizes his need of money in order to do the Lord’s work. He expresses his appreciation to the church in Philippi for their financial support of his mission. He says to this church, ‘when I left Macedonia, no other church helped me with gifts of money. You were the only ones’. Paul’s expression of appreciation to them is not an underhand way of looking for more money. Rather, he goes on to say to them, ‘Now for the time being I have everything that I need and more’. He is not looking for more money than he needs, yet, there is a realism about his recognition that even the Lord’s good work requires some money. What is significant for Paul, as for Jesus, is where we place our trust, where we find our security, who or what do we serve. Jesus trusted in God and Paul trusted in the risen Lord. There is a striking verse in today’s first reading which shows just how much Paul placed his trust in the Lord, rather than in money or any earthly possessions. He says, ‘There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength’, or in another translation, ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me’. I had an aunt who lived here in Clontarf for over fifty years, who never married, Eve was her name, and that was her favourite verse in all the Scriptures and, through her, it become one of mine. I think the version she knew was, ‘I can do all things in him who gives me strength’. It is only the Lord who can give us the strength we need to do all that he calls us to do, all that is in keeping with what is best in us. That is why he alone is worthy of our complete trust.

And/Or

(ii) Saturday, Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

The well known pop group of some years ago, Abba, had a song whose chorus was ‘money makes the world go around’. Money is part of all of our lives in one way or another. We all need some money just to live. In this morning’s gospel reading the concern of Jesus is not about money in itself but rather about the use that money is put to. He declares, ‘use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity’. He uses the language of trust in relation to money. ‘The one who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great’. Money is something that we are entrusted with to use well, and if we show ourselves to be worthy of that trust, then the day will come when we will be entrusted with what Jesus calls genuine riches, the riches of eternal life. Jesus seems to be saying that more important even than what we have is what we do with what we have. Whatever resources that come our way, we are called upon to use them in the service of others, ‘to win us friends’ in the language of the gospel reading. The gospel challenges us every day to use what we have to benefit others, and what we have includes not only our material possessions, but our gifts, our talents, our experience, our time. We all have something that can benefit someone, if we are willing to share it.

And/Or

(iii) Saturday, Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

There is a statement in one of the letters attributed to Paul which declares that money is the root of all evil. In this morning’s gospel reading, however, the concern of Jesus is not about money in itself but rather about the use that money is put to. He declares, ‘use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity’. He uses the language of trust in relation to money. It is something that we are trusted with to use well, and if we show ourselves to be worthy of that trust, by using it well, then the day will come when we will be entrusted with genuine riches, the riches of eternal life. Jesus seems to be saying that more important even than what we have is what we do with what we have. Whatever resources that come our way, we are called upon to use them in the service of others. The gospel challenges us every day to use what we possess to benefit others, and what we possess includes not only our material possessions, but our gifts, our talents, our experience, our time. We all have something that can benefit someone else, if we are willing to give it away and to share it.

And/Or

(iv) Saturday, Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus makes a distinction between material riches and genuine riches and he associates genuine riches with heaven, the ‘tents of eternity’. He calls on us to use material riches in such a way that they prepare us to receive the genuine riches of eternal life. This involves using our material resources in the service of the Lord and his people. Paul singles out the church in Philippi as an example of those who have used their material resources in the service of others, in particular, in the service of Paul himself. He remembers how in the early days of his preaching the gospel, the church in Philippi helped him with gifts of money. Writing from prison, he thanks them for the help they have sent him more recently. Knowing Paul was in prison, they sent gits to him by means of their messenger Epaphroditus. Paul is grateful for all this material assistance, and, yet, he declares that he is not dependant on it, because, as he says, ‘there is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength’, namely, the Lord. Paul found his strength, his security, in the Lord, and, therefore, he was free in regard to material possessions. Paul’s life shows us that if we find our strength and security in the Lord we will feel no need or desire to become a servant of Mammon, in the words of the gospel reading.

And/Or

(v) Saturday, Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading, Paul writes from prison to one of the churches he established, the church in the city of Philippi in Northern Greece. This was a church with whom he had a very warm relationship. They had helped him in all kinds of practical ways, since he first began to preach the gospel in Northern Greece. In today’s first reading, Paul says to this church, ‘no other church helped me with gifts of money. You were the only ones, and twice since my stay in Thessalonika you have sent me what I needed’. As a result of this church’s generosity to him, Paul goes on to say, ‘Now for the time being I have everything that I need and more’. It seems that this very early Christian community in Philippi was being faithful to the message of Jesus in today’s gospel reading from Luke. There Jesus calls on us to use money in the service of others so that at the end of our lives they will welcome us into the tents of eternity. Jesus suggests that the resources of this world are given to us on trust, to be used for others. If we are faithful to that trust of earthly riches, ‘little things’, then we will be entrusted with genuine riches, the riches of eternal life, ‘great things’. At the end of this morning’s first reading, Paul assures the Philippians that their generosity towards him will create a space for God to ‘fulfil all your needs in Christ Jesus, as lavishly as only God can’. Paul is assuring us that when we are generous with what has been entrusted to us, we open ourselves up to experiencing God’s lavish generosity towards us. In the words of Jesus earlier in Luke’s gospel, ‘give and it will be given to you’.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

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