(21st September 2025) - Homily for 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Read: (Amos 8:4-6; 1 Tim 2: 1-8; Lk 16: 1-13)

Reflect: Remain faithful to God always…

Dear friends, we are on the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The liturgy of the word invites us to remain faithful to God always. To be faithful means to be completely devoted to or dedicated to someone or something. Faithful would perhaps mean full of faith in God, in others and in oneself. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Yes faith needs no unnecessary explanations, because faith makes us understand, believe, hope and endure. That should be our faith in God too. I am sure the one who has faith in God will also be faithful to God. Having faith in God and being unfaithful to God becomes contradictory in life and is contrary to what we profess or believe and live. For when we are faithful to God, He makes our lives meaningful, joyful and successful. So based on the readings I would like to share with you three points of reflection.

1.     Be faithful to the poor:

Today being and becoming faithful to the poor has become an option for all of us. Just because they are poor and cannot repay us in cash, we sometimes devalue them and consider them as mere use and throw away goods or commodities. Although some of us are part of the same game, yet there are many who come forward in helping the poor and voice out for the poor for the dignity of life in the society. One such person we have in the first reading is prophet Amos, who condemns the rich, those who trample the needy and the poor of their basic necessities for livelihood that is grain and those who mishandle the food, the grain and disrespect the dignity of the poor. 

It is something similar to the concept of rich becoming richer and poor becoming poorer and poorest by the attitude of the rich and the well-to-do families… As St. Mother Teresa would say, “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” Yes, our strength lies in being faithful to not only little things but also people who are least belittled in the society. So let us be faithful to people who are small in their status and power, talents and resources and grant them the dignity and joy of life. Then we would be able to hear from God our Master, “well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in little things, I shall entrust you in charge of many things, come and share the joy of your Master,” (Matt 25:23). 

Yes, indeed, being faithful to the poor and sharing our little acts of kindness and things could be one form of expressions of faithfulness that we can show to God. So let us be faithful to the poor in voicing out the unjust structures and systems of the society, support and encourage the poor by lending them a helping hand and give them opportunities to come forward in life. Thus, the poor of the society or our neighborhood may experience the dignity of human living. 

Today we need to realize that by enhancing the quality of the poor and showing faithfulness to the poor is not merely a charitable act rather it is justice too. Whenever we associate with the poor and the marginalized, we see God in them, for God loves the poor and the weak. Most often, we think of financial assistance to the poor, but I personally feel all may not be in want of money; there are many who need food, clothing and shelter. There are a few more, who need time to listen, to love, to care and to spend time in order to uplift their status in life. Let us in whatever capacity possible, let us be faithful to the poor and marginalized in supporting and helping them to come closer to God.

2.                  Be Faithful to all:

Being faithful and becoming faithful to the poor may have become an option for us today but being faithful to all is not an option but a privilege and as well an obligation and duty, because our faithfulness reveals our faith in God, our good nature and character as created by God for good and goodness. Being faithful to all without being mindful of one’s power, position, situation, condition, relationship or association has virtues of mercy and compassion, goodwill and generosity. By being faithful to all, we only reflect the image of God, who is ever faithful, although we are unfaithful many times. Therefore, loyalty and faithfulness to all is a virtue of good-hearted and generous persons. We could even call it a radical act of love and witness to the other. 

Something similar line of thought we find in the second reading of the day. The second reading from St. Paul in his first letter to Timothy invites us to live a dignified life by offering prayers, supplications and thanksgiving to all the people including those in power and position. So  that we live peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way. God wishes all to be saved. Jesus, who had all, gave us all even his own life. So St. Paul desires that we pray at all times without anger or fight. 

Yes, one of the surest ways that we can remain faithful to one another is by praying. It does not matter to whom we pray, but an act of prayer for others only reveals that we become one with the heart of God, eliciting healing and transformation. We can pray for all; both the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, powerful and the powerless, regardless of who they are and who we are. The prayers that we offer for one another will make the faithful more faithful and the faithless will become faithful too. For such is the power of prayer that we pray and offer for one another. The need of the hour is that we need to pray for faithfulness and people, those who are faithful, so that we could experience the healing touch of God in our lives. The faithfulness of Jesus to God His heavenly Father brought us a complete healing and transformation. 

Today, what divides the world, society, community and family is our unfaithful ways and attitudes. Unfaithfulness to the country as citizens by failing to fulfill the obligations, unfaithfulness to the church as Christians by failing to follow its principles and devout practices, and above all unfaithfulness among spouses, children and parents, among friends and family lead us all into conflict and confusion, empty and pitiful. If each one remains faithful to one another, I am sure the world would be a better place to live in. So let us pray for the grace to be faithful to all by offering prayers and supplications to God at all times. 

3.  Be faithful to God:

For us Christians, it is important to be faithful to God, for faithfulness to God reveals that we are his children. Primarily God calls us to be faithful to Him. God wants us to be completely devoted to him, show loyalty to him and be committed to his work entrusted to us. Let us remember the words of St. Paul, “For if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He can’t deny himself,” (2 Tim 2:11-13). Yes, to a God who is faithful to us although we may remain faithless, can we not be faithful to him, who devotes completely to us? That’s what the Gospel reading tells us how important it is to be faithful to God in and through the story of a rich man and the unfaithful manager. 

The gospel reading presents before us a rich man and his manager who was accused of wasting a rich man’s possessions. The rich man does not only warn the manager but dismisses the manager for his fraudulent act. But before he could get away from the management, the manager does some charitable acts to master’s debtors so that they would receive the manager into their houses. The act of the manager is fraudulent in doing charity towards the debtor’s master, with the possessions of the master i.e., oil and wheat. Even in this regard, the fraudulent act of the manager is praise-worthy; the gospel makes us realize that money is just a means to win the friendship of others and not the only thing and not the end of everything.   

I feel although the Gospel tells us to make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, yet the concluding verses of the gospel makes a clear point that we can never serve two masters i.e., God and Money. God was, is and will be always good, but money cannot be good at all times, it can be good and bad. The moderate desire for money and the use of money is good but excessive desire to have money and use money only will lead us to destructive destiny. Most of us today are accustomed to giving more importance to money than God. May be because we don’t see God visibly we take him lightly and may be because we see money we take it very seriously. But let us remember, money can be a passport to go wherever we wish but money can never be a passport to go to heaven or God.

We all know that the failure of the manager or the dismissal of the manager was due to his unfaithfulness. He could not devote to one thing particularly, properly and most of all genuinely. The manager did not devote to the words of the master, was not faithful to the master's property and possessions, rather his focus was deviated and that’s why we hear of accusations and charges against the manager that he was wasting masters’ possession. Probably the manager was trying to take away the riches of the master or wanted to possess the riches of the master to himself. That’s why the rich man questioned the accountability of the manager for mismanaging the riches of the rich man. 

Yes if we are not accountable or responsible or faithful to the faith that we profess, the profession that we engage in or the life that we live, be for sure, we too will be held accountable before God for our faithlessness.  The book of proverbs very clearly tells us, “ A faithful  man is rich with blessings, but one who is eager to be rich will not go unpunished,” (Prov 28:20). Yes, the faithful one’s will inherit blessings of God but the unfaithful ones will never go unpunished, because by being unfaithful to God or to another, we betray our credibility and trustworthiness that God has in us or others have about us. 

Today, the trust and faithfulness to God need to be stronger even if it seems that everything is finished. That’s what Pope Leo would say, “Every suspended time can become a time of grace, if we offer it to God, for Jesus, buried in the ground, is the meek face of a God who does not occupy all space and the God who lets things be done, who waits, who withdraws to leave us freedom. He is the God who trusts, even when everything seems to be over.” Yes, Jesus trusted in God and remained faithful to his heavenly Father till the end. The faithfulness of Jesus brought us the offer of salvation and freedom from all sins.  So let us be faithful to God in all ways and God will give us grace to be free from all forms of sins and stains.  

Respond:

Am I faithful to God, to others and very specially the poor and needy?  

Do I give excessive importance to money which is unhealthy? 

Do I give priority to God, who is the prime cause and effect of everything in life? 

Let us remain faithful to God, others and in a special way to the poor and the needy and obtain the blessings of God as our reward for faithfulness. Amen.

“For one thing is certain: God in his loving kindness never refuses his helping hand, all along the way of perfection, to the one who is faithful over a little, who does what he/she can.” (St. Francis De Sales, TLG, Bk I, Chapter – 18, p. 37)

God bless us all! Live Jesus!

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS

rameshvkmsfs@gmail.com)

Ph: 9500930968