The Gospel of Luke, chapter 16:13

The message in today’s scripture is that God alone is truly worth serving. This is the good news, and it challenges us to aspire to greater things in our lives.

The scheming manager whom the Lord talks about in chapter sixteen of St. Luke’s Gospel, is no stranger to our society. Bestselling books such as; ‘Trump,’ ‘Iacocca,’ ‘swimming with the sharks,’ and some box office movies, like ‘Wallstreet,’ make it clear that the world is full of scheming and crafty businessmen. We live in a society where it is regarded as important to be a financial success; to “make it” in other words.

Jesus does not condemn the wily business manager in the Gospel story for showing such initiative and sense of enterprise “when it comes to dealing with his own kind” (Luke 16/7). He actually wants us to learn from this unjust manager and to use as much ingenuity as we can to succeed as Christians. The treasure we have been given is not one that can be thrown away or trampled underfoot; it is a spiritual treasure that will outlast all the riches of the world which will pass and fade away, inevitably. So, if you want to be crafty, be creative in the only thing that ultimately matters; use your skills to improve your spiritual treasure and your reward will be great in heaven.

The point that Jesus makes in today’s Gospel is that we should devote ourselves single-heartedly to God rather than to money (mammon) for we cannot serve two masters. How wise!

There is a story in aesop’s fables about a man who had two wives-one was older than him, while the other was ten years his junior. As years went by the man’s hair started to turn gray. The young wife was embarrassed by this, so she took it upon herself to brush her husband’s hair each night and to pluck our as many gray hairs as she could. The older wife, on the other hand, thought her husband’s gray hair made him look distinguished (and, of course, closer to her own age,) so she took it upon herself to brush her husband’s hair each morning and to pluck out as many dark hairs as she could. Both wives did their work very well. In a short time, the poor husband was totally bald. By trying to please two wives, the poor man pleased neither.

In the same way, you cannot serve God and money. You will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.

Jesus is asking us to be devoted to God, not money.

Fr. Hugh Duffy