25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
Jesus in today's gospel reading states "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. Hence my brothers and sisters, who are you serving? Are you serving God or are you serving mammon? This might seem to be a very difficult question to answer especially when we put it into the perspective of our everyday living. Yes we do have a lot to do. We have to work, go to school, take care of our families, pay our bills, deal with issues, worries, concerns etc, and still take care of ourselves! But as Catholic Christians, we really need to take a moment to answer the question “who are we serving” and to think about Jesus’s words to us today, which says, “You cannot serve both God and mammon."
What does Jesus mean by "serve both God and mammon" in that statement? 'To serve' in the English dictionary means to perform duties or services for another person or an organization. So, to serve here as pointed out by Jesus means to perform duties or services for God or for mammon, which is an Aramaic word that means "money," "wealth," or "material possessions.” What then is this service that we have to perform for God? Since ‘Service’ is the action of helping or doing work for someone or an act of assistance, our service to God is an action of helping Him or doing work for Him by assisting Him in spreading His gospel in the world.
So how many of us here today are truly serving God? How many of us here today are helping and assisting God in spreading His gospel in the world? Take a moment now to look at your life this past week and find out how you have served God or how you have been of service to Him in the world. How many hours did you spend on God this past week? How many hours did you spend with God this past week? And how many hours did you spend for God this past week? Question yourself if I did not spend time on, with or for God this past week, can I really say that I am truly serving God? How much time did I spend on myself, or on things that I love or like this past week? What did I show the most interest in this past week, God or something else? What took up most of my time during the past week and how much time did I dedicate to God and to my call as His disciple?
My brothers and sisters, let us listen once again to the words of Jesus to us in today's gospel reading, "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." So it is time to choose to serve God only, with all our strength, power and might. Remember, we are not alone, God is with us to help us, to guide us and to assist us to serve Him well. Let us go and truly serve the Lord! Amen.
