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18th September 2022

Homily for 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

REFLECT: Remain faithful always

Dear friends,

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. The Liturgy of the word invites each one of us to remain faithful to God always. 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 goods or commodities. Although some of us are part of 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 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). 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.

2. Be Faithful to all:

Being faithful and becoming faithful to the poor may have become 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. The second reading from St. Paul in his fist 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. 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. 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 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 have accustomed to give 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 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 posses 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 one’s 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 other have about us. So let us be faithful to God in all ways.  

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