25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

God and Wealth

A poster I came across recently said: God does not need your money. God needs your heart! How perfectly this fits with this weekend’s readings! The prophet Amos warns that advancement or economic success should not mean trampling on the poor. His prophetic voice shouts out to proclaim God’s love and care for the poor. Wealth can exclude such love and care from our daily lives. And Luke tells us that we can’t serve both God and money. Do we choose God? Our patron, Saint Francis of Assisi, certainly did choose God.

Alice Camille in Exploring The Sunday Readings, a guide many of you use for your Small Church Communities (SCC) faith sharing, asks these questions:

If virtues were dollars, how wealthy would you be? If prayers were coins, would you have amassed a fortune yet? If kind words were cash, what would be in your piggy bank at the end of each day? If an automatic payment were made to your bank account every time you forgave someone a slight or an injury, would you be well on your way to a retirement home in kingdom come?