St. Paul wraps up his letter to the Romans in today’s first reading. “To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen.” And amen! In the Gospel reading today from Luke 16, Jesus speaks again about our relationship with things.
“You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is the Greek transliteration of a Hebrew or Aramaic word that is usually explained as meaning “that in which one trusts.” Jesus taught again and again that we must place our trust only in God. Therefore, if we are putting our trust ONLY in God, then we cannot place our trust elsewhere, be it in money, possessions, etc. The moment we begin serving (trusting) mammon, we stop trusting in God.
I suppose it would be nice to have a large bank account, a big mansion, lots of property, a big fat 401(k). It would probably be very easy to think that these things will provide us security. And as far as earthly security is concerned, they may well, temporarily, at least. But all these things are just so much nonsense from an eternal perspective. In fact, they may very well be a stumbling block to eternal security. Something to think about.
Father, forgive us when we place our trust in anything but You. Give us the grace to serve You with everything we’ve got. Amen.
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