Reflection From

Fr. John

September 21, 2025

“No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13) Jesus, being fully human, not only participated in the creation of humanity, but became like us in every way except sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

He knows human nature very well and knows how we are tempted. In this week’s Gospel, He gives us a very practical and down to earth allegory for how to approach material wealth.

If you have ever had two different bosses or two different supervisors to whom you needed to report, you know how difficult this can be. This is especially true if the two bosses or supervisors don’t see eye to eye or have directly opposing views. You cannot properly obey or follow one of the bosses without angering or rejecting the other. This is the way Jesus describes serving both God and mammon in the Gospel this week. Mammon was an Aramaic term for wealth, money or possessions. In the Gospel passage for this week, Jesus sets up wealth as something that can rival the primacy of God in our lives. If we are not careful, material gain or the pursuit of wealth can easily become an idol and means of temptation.

Jesus in the Gospel this week is calling us to reflect on which master or lord we serve. He is calling us to make a radical choice, to choose Him over all else. In his homily at St. Clement’s Square on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI mentioned, “Life is truly always a choice: between honesty and dishonesty, between fidelity and infidelity, between selfishness and altruism, between good and evil.” All of us are given this choice, each and every day in little and big ways. We can ask ourselves, “Are we choosing Christ and are we loving Him above all else?” How can we grow to love more like Jesus and keep our focus on Him?

While wealth and material possessions are good, they cannot take the place of following and serving God. They cannot become the primary or even secondary goals in our lives. In his homily on this passage in the Gospel of Luke, Pope Benedict XVI went on to clarify the distinction between God and mammon, “Basically, it is a matter of choosing between selfishness and love, between justice and dishonesty and ultimately, between God and Satan. If loving Christ and one's brethren is not to be considered as something incidental and superficial but, rather, the true and ultimate purpose of our whole existence, it will be necessary to know how to make basic choices, to be prepared to make radical renouncements, if necessary even to the point of martyrdom. Today, as yesterday, Christian life demands the courage to go against the tide, to love like Jesus, who even went so far as to sacrifice himself on the Cross.” These are not easy words, but neither is the choice that Jesus is presenting us with in this week’s Gospel. May we reflect on how we choose to make decisions each day and strive to listen to the voice of Christ. Following the celebration of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross this past Sunday and in light of current events, what is our response to the call to witness to our faith and to preach the Truth in Love? Let us not allow ourselves to be ruled by fear but trust in the omnipotency and perpetual Love of God, who has conquered all things, even death itself. (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) May we not shrink back from our divine calling, but choose Christ before all else, allowing Christ’s love to be the defining criteria and goal of our lives, not merely the pursuit of material goods or earthly success.

Father John

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