These blogs use the Catholic daily Lectionary as a focus for reflection on daily living. The reasoning behind this practice is outlined in a blog of 6th November. Please add comment.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God

Reading 1, Rom 16:3-9, 16, 22-27

³ My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus,

⁴ who risked their own necks to save my life; to them, thanks not only from me, but from all the churches among the gentiles;

⁵ and my greetings to the church at their house. Greetings to my dear friend Epaenetus, the first of Asia’s offerings to Christ.

⁶ Greetings to Mary, who worked so hard for you.

⁷ Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me.

⁸ Greetings to Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

⁹ Greetings to Urban, my fellow-worker in Christ, and to my dear friend Stachys.

¹⁶

Greet each other with the holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send their greetings.

²² I, Tertius, who am writing this letter, greet you in the Lord.

²³ Greetings to you from Gaius, my host here, and host of the whole church. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends greetings to you, and our brother Quartus.

²⁴

²⁵ And now to him who can make you strong in accordance with the gospel that I preach and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in accordance with that mystery which for endless ages was kept secret

²⁶ but now (as the prophets wrote) is revealed, as the eternal God commanded, to be made known to all the nations, so that they obey in faith:

²⁷ to him, the only wise God, give glory through Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen.

Paul is dealing with something huge-the mystery which for endless ages was kept secret…now revealed-but he knows it is inseparable from the small people who form the church community, whom he names. As if in proof of this, Tertius, his scribe, gets his own paragraph, and gives his own greetings.  In the huge purposes of the Roman Empire, such people had no importance but Paul thinks that the much greater plans of God depend on them. Nothing important can be achieved without them; no ambitious plans can justify ignoring them. This is true of my own daily objectives and the people around me. It’s also true of the vast purposes of Nato in Afghanistan: the cost to “unimportant” soldiers and Afghani civilians has to be remembered.

Gospel, Lk 16:9-15

⁹ ‘And so I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ Anyone who is trustworthy in little things is trustworthy in great; anyone who is dishonest in little things is dishonest in great.

¹¹ If then you are not trustworthy with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches?

¹² And if you are not trustworthy with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?

¹³ ‘No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.’

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and jeered at him.

¹⁵ He said to them, ‘You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as upright in people’s sight, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed in human eyes is loathsome in the sight of God.

Luke presents this teaching as given by Jesus. Just as Paul sees the small people of the community as central to God’s plans, so Jesus singles out the poor as central to our use of money: we are to use our money for their benefit so that they will be friendly witnesses for our admission into heaven. Money is tainted but its true importance in the world is to help the lives of the poor whom God loves. That’s why we can’t love God and money.  My commitment to a more just society does not excuse me from solidarity with the needy people I’ll meet today.