Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Year C
Serving God In the Poor
Fr. Udoekpo, Michael Ufok
§ Amos 8:4-7;
§ Ps 113:1-8;
§ 1 Tim 2:1-8
§ Luke 16:1-13
Today’s
readings are quite interesting. They focus on the need for us to always treat
one another especially the poor and the margin of the society with dignity, and Godly sense of justice, a
message that Pope Francis continues to run home with, since taking the seat of
Peter. It is also about the need for us to wisely make good use of all the
material things God has blessed us with, including our money. Wealth has to be
gotten honestly. The readings again invite us to always act, even in living and
preaching the gospel message with a spiritual foresight and pursuit of
spiritual security.
Christ
particularly passes on this message to us in this parable of a rich steward who
plans to fire his corrupt steward. Finding this out, the steward tells all
those who owe his master some money to forget about the interest. By doing this
the cunning and dishonest servant acted with worldly foresight and shrewdly
bought friends for himself in the future, knowing that soon he would be
unemployed. Again he was not punished by doing this. Perhaps he made his master
also look good by writing off the debts of all the borrowers.
Towards
the end of the parable, Jesus reiterate, “You cannot serve both God and
mammon,” referring still to dishonest and inordinate wealth, wrong
profits-making, ill-treatment of the poor, worldly foresight and behavior of
the shrewd steward for buying off future friends with money. How wish we can
channel our energy, our smartness in spiritual insight, and in
matters that does good to everyone in the light of Christ Jesus. Unfortunately,
it is always, me, me, me, that selfishness, that neglect of the poor—those acts
of corruption and injustices!
This
type of behavior is not limited to the time of Christ. In the mid Eight century
BC, during the time of Amos of Tekoa, when Jeroboam the II was the king of
Samaria, and Amazia served as his priest, injustices, corruption, ill treatment
of the poor was also prevalent. There were greediness everywhere as well as
hypocritical practice in worship. And the widow’s head and the poor were trampled
into the dust and some were sold out with a pair of sandals or for just a
little silver, as the shrewd steward of the gospel parable(Amos 8:4-7). Amos, a
wealthy man was called as we are called today to challenge the ugly ills of the
society.
In
the US Senate and Congress now, and I believe in many other parts of the world’s
political centers, there is a constant debate on how to bridge the yawning gap
between the rich and the poor. How do we help those on food- stamps? What do we
do with our brothers and sisters without job, employment and health insurance?
Is it necessary for some to keep 10 or more homes or cars when others have
none, especially homes or those material goods gotten in a wrong and dishonest
manner? Pope Francis recently has also demonstrated in words and action the
need to reach out to the poor—the essentials of the message of Christ.
In
the face of the disparity between the rich and the poor today what would Jesus
have done? He would reach out to them because in the beginning of his ministry
in Galilee, in the same very Luke’s gospel, Jesus proclaims “the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, and recovery of sight to the
blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaimed a year acceptable to the
Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).
From
then on Jesus reached out to the sick, the leper, the blind, the poor, the
widow, the needy, the rejected, men, women and children. Jesus wants everyone
to eat. He wants every to be clothed. He wants everyone to be
healthy. He wants everyone to have a roof over their heads. As
Saint Paul would put it in the Second Reading, He wants everyone to be saved (1
Tim 2:1-8).
Money
especially wrong use of money is not everything. There is a story of a very
hungry and starving rich sick man who received a huge parcel in the mail, which
he presumed was food. He greedily tore open the box and proclaimed, “Oh my God,
it is not food, but gold.” The poor man would have preferred food, instantly, than
gold.
We
need Christ-like values, good choices, steward- like approach and spiritual
insight in our preaching, in our daily living, in our government decisions, in
our relationship with God and with our neighbors, recognizing that material
things, particularly money is not everything- selfishly used, but was meant for
the common good, for the service of God and of our neighbors- especially of the
poor!
Reflection
Questions
1.
What have we learned from today’s scripture
readings?
2.
How often do we like Amos challenges the
unjust socio-political and economic status-quo of our society?
3.
Are
we prophetic in the manner we champion the cause of justice and of the poor?
Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Year C
Service of God through the Poor
§ Amos 8:4-7;
§ Ps 113:1-8;
§ 1 Tim 2:1-8
§ Luke 16:1-13
Today’s readings
are quite interesting. It focuses on the need for us to always treat one
another especially the poor and the margin of the society with dignity and Godly sense of justice and righteousness. It is
also about the need for us to wisely make good use of all the material things
God has blessed us with, including our money. Wealth has to be gotten honestly.
The readings again invite us to always act, even in living and preaching the
gospel message with a spiritual foresight.
Christ
particularly passes on this message to us in this parable of a rich steward who
plans to fire his corrupt steward. Finding this out, the steward tells all
those who owe his master some money to forget about the interest. By doing this
the dishonest servant acted with worldly foresight and shrewdly bought friends
for himself in the future, knowing that soon he would be unemployed. Again he
was not punished by doing this. Perhaps he made his master also look good by
writing off the debts of all the borrowers.
Towards the end of
the parable, Jesus reiterate, “You cannot serve both God and mammon,” referring
still to dishonest and inordinate wealth, wrong profits-making, ill-treatment
of the poor, worldly foresight and behavior of the shrewd steward for buying
off future friends with money.
This type of
behavior is not limited to the time of Christ. In the mid Eight century BC,
during the time of Amos, when Jeroboam the II was the king of Samaria, and
Amazia served as his priest, injustices, ill treatment of the poor was also
prevalent. There was greediness everywhere. And the widow’s head and the poor
were trampled into the dust and some were sold out with a pair of sandals or
for just a little silver, as the shrewd steward of the gospel parable(Amos
8:4-7).
In the US Senate
and Congress now, and I believe in many other parts of the world as well, there
is a constant debate on how to bridge the yawning gap between the rich and the
poor. How do we help those on food- stamps? What do we do with our brothers and
sisters without job, employment and health insurance? Is it necessary for some
to keep 10 or more homes or cars when others have none, especially homes or
those material goods gotten in a wrong and dishonest manner? Pope Francis
recently has also demonstrated in words and action the need to reach out to the
poor—the essentials of the message of Christ.
In the face of the
disparity between the rich and the poor today what would Jesus have done? He
would reach out to them because in the beginning of his ministry in Galilee, in
the same very Luke’s gospel, Jesus proclaims “the Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent
me to proclaim liberty to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let
the oppressed go free, and to proclaimed a year acceptable to the Lord” (Luke
4:18-19).
From then on Jesus
reached out to the sick, the leper, the blind, the poor, the widow, the needy,
the rejected, men, women and children. Jesus wants everyone to eat. He wants
every to be clothed. He wants everyone to be healthy. He wants
everyone to have a roof over their heads. As Saint Paul would put it in the
Second Reading, He wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim 2:1-8).
Money especially
wrong use of money is not everything. There is a story of a very hungry and
starving rich sick man who received a huge parcel in the mail, which he
presumed was food. He greedily tore open the box and proclaimed, “Oh my God, it
is not food, but gold.”
We need
Christ-like values and spiritual insight in our preaching, in our daily living,
in our government decisions, in our relationship with God and with our
neighbors, that material things, particularly money is not everything-
selfishly used, but was meant for the common good, for the service of God and
our neighbors- especially of the poor!
Reflection
Questions
1.
What have we learned from today’s scripture
readings?
2.
How often do we like Amos challenges the
unjust socio-political and economic status-quo of our society?
3.
Are
prophetic in the manner the champion the cause of justice and of the poor?
