25th Sunday Ordinary Time

Readings: Exodus 32.7-11,13-141, Timothy 1.12-17, Luke 15.1-32

The first reading today is from the prophet Amos is very clear and compelling. The Gospel seems a little more difficult to understand but usually reflects the same teaching as the first reading. The Second reading assures us that God wants all of us to be saved.

As we try to understand these readings and allow them to form us as followers of Lord Jesus Christ, we can sense very strongly that our Lord wants us to be honest both in great things and in small things. In particular our Lord doesn’t want us to be the oppressors of the poor and the needy. This had all kinds of implications for us who live in the developed countries and who often do not think of our actions as oppressing anyone. We forget that the things that we purchase have effects on others. Jesus certainly was not preaching about this kind of indirect and unthinking oppression in which we can be involved without thinking, but about a very direct and clear oppressions of others.

It is probably difficult for us to imagine ourselves being directly involved in oppressing the poor and the needy and probably we are not. The attitudes that lead to such oppression, however, can easily become part of our lives. In the first reading it is clear that the oppressors are those who want to have money. Our whole culture seems to tell us that we should have money and power. We can begin to think in this way and slowly begin to put that value of money as more important than the value of sharing what we have with others.

Today’s Gospel speaks about learning  how to use well whatever we have. There’s an admiration of the dishonest Steward-not for his dishonesty but for his ability to figure his way out of a mess that he had created. What about us ? How able are we to figure out the spiritual life and works towards its goals.

Perhaps at times we seem able to figure out the spiritual life because it is not all that complicated. Do we begin to live spiritually then? Today’s readings seem to invite us to know the spiritual life, to know what it means to follow the Lord, and also to live that knowledge in our lives.

So many people say: “I believe in God” and that is all their further belief goes. We are invited to reflect on God’s work and to allow that word to transform us entirely. The Second reading assures us that God is there, willing for us to be saved, eager for us to respond to His love.

Let us ask today for a deeper knowledge and understanding of our faith and for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to give us strength to live that knowledge and understanding.