Sep 21st, 2025: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Luke 16: 10-13)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says – no slave can serve two masters. You either hate one and love the other, or you are devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

What is mammon? It’s simply what we worship in the world, in place of God. It’s money, pride, power, titles, ego, sex, esteem of others; anything we worship in the world, in place of God.

So, in life, how does that decision show up, about what we worship – who we serve? What does that look like? Well, it shows up in our actions: how we live our life.

Now, if you want to know how to center your life completely on God, it’s easy: all you have to do is look to our brothers down in Bardstown at the Abby of Gethsemani. They are Trappist monks, Cistercians, of the strictest observance. They are a community of men dedicated to a life of monastic prayer, work, and fraternal union.

Is anybody here called to live that life? Has God called any of us to that life? I don’t think so. 

Well then, outside of a Trappist Abby, how do we love, serve, and trust in God, as our true master, instead of mammon?

Well, one way to start to know the answer to that question is to listen…to that still, small voice of God. In the silence…of the early morning, or of the night. Or, if you’re at home alone during the day, in the silence of your living room, maybe in your favorite chair, or maybe even in the bathroom. Someplace silent, where you can focus… is important. My personal preference is the early hours of the morning, in the dark, on the couch, where I can ask for, and acknowledge God’s presence there with me. You see, if we don’t take this time to spend with God, it will be so much more difficult to serve him when we go out into the world.

What I know for certain, is that if you do sit in that silence, and ask God to show you the way to serve Him and then listen. God will answer you – He will show you the way…to serve him. Now, He probably won’t answer you like you hear me talking right now, but he will answer you. Maybe in that moment, or maybe when that crisis happens during the day, or maybe when you’re faced with an immediate decision or choice at work or in the car. And if done well, this will be a lifetime relationship and listening session, I promise you.

My daughter, Megan recently sent me a link to a video, and it speaks I think, directly to antithesis, the opposite – of today’s Gospel message. So, I think it’s good to hear.

In the video, a pastor asked chat gpt – that’s “Artificial Intelligence or AI”. The pastor asked: If you were the devil, what would you do? Below is the answer he got back. See if any of this sounds familiar.

If you were the devil, what would you do?

I wouldn’t waste my time trying to get you to worship me. I’d just convince you not to go to church, and not to worship God at all.

I’d keep you busy. Too busy for prayer. Too busy for church. Too busy to think about eternity. I’d fill your hands with a phone, so you’d never have time to fold them in prayer, or to fill them with a bible.

I’d break families. Get fathers absent, marriages bitter, and kids confused. Because, if I can fracture the home/the family, I can fracture the world.

I’d divide the church. Because, if I can get Christians fighting each other, they’ll never fight me.

I’d desensitize you to sin, glamorizing it in movies, normalizing it in music, laughing at it in comedy, and celebrating it in culture – until what once shocked you now entertains you.

I’d whisper shame so loudly you couldn’t hear God’s voice of love.

And through it all, I’d never even try to prove I exist. My greatest trick is to convince you I’m not real. Because if you don’t believe I’m real, you’ll never resist.

Does any of that sound familiar relative to what is going on in the world?

A Priest friend of mine who has actually done a lot of Exorcism work tells me that one of Satan’s greatest tactics is really to convince people that he doesn’t exist…for exactly that reason. If you don’t think he exists, you’ll accept all of this…mammon, and never resist.

So, look at what is going on in the world! The shootings, the fighting online, the hatred; destruction of relationships, of families. We allow the world…Satan…mammon to call us to serve them. We get so caught up in all of it, and we don’t realize that Satan is doing exactly what he set out to do. This is exactly what he is intending: to create the chaos, the noise, the hatred, intentionally, so that we focus on that…on the things of the world…and not on God.

Is that what Christ calls us to in today’s Gospel?

Instead of all of that, try starting and ending your day in that silence…asking God to guide you in all you do…and then listen. And then, when you go out into the world, because we don’t live in an Abby: turn off the distractions, make a conscious effort to see God in every person you touch. Preach the Gospel – with your actions! Demonstrate that you will not be a slave to the world, to mammon. But that you are a child of God, serving Him in all that you do!