“SEEDS OF LIFE”
Sunday, 18th September 2016.
Twenty Fifth Week of Ordinary Time
Amos 8:4-7;
Psalm 113: 1-2, 4-8;
1Timothy 2:1-8;
Luke 16: 1-13
JESUS THE TRUE TREASURE!
“The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1Tim 6:10). Money brings power, luxury and security but along with these it can bring in greed, avarice and other vices in our life. We often hear about the alarming cases of cheating, corruption, murder, burglaries, scams etc., many of which were for the sake of making a quick buck, to make life comfortable and secure.
In today’s Gospel, we meet a rich man, who had entrusted his property and business to his manager. However the manager squanders the property to make some profit for himself. The master thus decides to relieve the dishonest manager from his job. The shrewd manager thus fearing for his future security, makes deal with his master’s debtors to manipulate the accounts so as to guarantee a secure future. We see here a manager, who could have never served his master because he was already a slave to wealth.
Every man wants to be rich, which is not at a bad desire. Wealth in itself is not evil, but rather the love of wealth is. But a person can become its slave through excessive love of it. Therefore, Jesus at the end of this parable summarizes the entire parable saying, “You cannot serve both God and money.”
“The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.” Just a few decades before the time of Jesus King Herod the Great had refurbished and extended the Jerusalem temple, therefore the temple cult was at its height. Pharisees and Sadducees were drifted away by the rich and influential people who offered huge sum of money to the temple. The greed for money led them to make friendship only with the rich and influential while forgetting the outcast, the needy, the widows and the orphans. Instead of God they had begun serving money (rich people). Therefore, this parable of Jesus struck them bitterly and thus they ridiculed him.
Likewise, in the first reading prophet Amos expounds to us the implications of being a slave to wealth or money. Amos, the prophet of justice brings before us a society where cheating, manipulation and corruption was prevalent. Scales were tampered, just and due wages were not paid to the poor, the rich exploited the needy and used their need for their greed. About 2600 years have passed since then, man has become civilized, but hardly anything has changed over these years. The poor and needy continue to be exploited and trampled upon just because of the greed of a few. These few have become slave to money and wealth, as a result they are unable to walk in the way of righteousness shown by God. They are unfaithful towards God and thus also unfaithful in their duties towards fellow human beings.
Dear friends, many a times we find ourselves to be no better than the unfaithful manager, the Pharisees and the people during the time of prophet Amos. We are prone to lie, to cheat, to manipulate etc. in order to make some riches and security. Riches are not evil but we must not make riches through evil ways rather we must earn riches through our efforts and diligence. Also we must know that we don’t require riches to sustain but as St. Teresa of Avila tells, “God alone suffices.” The moment we begin serving money we become greedy and selfish. But the moment we begin serving God we become generous and selfless. Let us then strive to seek the Kingdom of God and surely the rest will be given to us.
Prayer: Lord, May you be the only treasure and yearning of my life. Amen