Reflection for SATURDAY, 31st Week, Ordinary Time.

By

          Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Director, Social Action Movement, Don Bosco Bidar   

Today's Gospel Verses


 Luke 16:9-15

 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 

 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” 

 The Pharisees, who loved money,heard all this and were sneering at* *Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

 Today's Reflection 

It can be quite astonishing, and maybe even amusing, as we think about what people quarrel and even fight over.

And one of the things that people quarrel about is over money.

It may be in the division of inheritance, about who foots the bill, about being paid less, etc.

But in the gospel, Jesus tells us to use money, tainted as it is, to win friends.

Practically, it means that if money can solve a problem, then use that money to solve it, instead of quarreling and fighting over it.

But of course, the burning question is that why should we be the ones to come out with the money when all should bear it and be fair and square.

In the 1st reading, St. Paul offers a noble view of using money, whether it is to solve problems or to help others.

He told the Philippians that they were the only ones who helped him with gifts of money.

But it was not so much the value or how much money they gave, but their generosity and that God accepts and finds it pleasing.

So whether we use money to solve problems or to help others, let us see it as an offering to God who in turn will bless us abundantly.


        GOD BLESS YOU

Good morning. Have a nice day