Reflection for November 5, Saturday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 16:9-15

Gospel: Luke 16:9-15

Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. 

If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” 

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him. And he said to them, “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”

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Reflection:

What is the true wealth that Jesus speaks about in the gospel? 

The dishonest wealth such as money, possessions, power and the like are temporary, fake and passing. And if we are not careful on handling this dishonest wealth it may possess and eventually destroy us or we may destroy others just to possess it. 

The true wealth is Jesus himself! Let us strive: To seek Him and to know more about Him. To have a personal relationship with Him and to share whatever knowledge we know about Him. We cannot have dishonest and true wealth at the same time we have to choose which one do we want. 

If we would choose dishonest wealth it will certainly satisfy our earthly cravings which by the way is bounded by time. So we enjoy it until such time that we leave it or it leaves us. And then we end up with nothing but misery. 

If we have the true and everlasting wealth that is Jesus; we will not anymore be looking for the temporary/dishonest wealth.  For the simple reason that we already possess the greatest wealth that one could ever have in this world and beyond this world. – Marino J. Dasmarinas