20 April 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Luke 16:13
Christ is risen! Today's Gospel is plain speech about money. “If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?” Then the sentence everyone remembers: “No slave can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and wealth.” Jesus does not say that money is evil; he says it makes a poor master. Wealth asks for the whole heart, and so does God; one of them must give way. Luke adds that some who heard this “were lovers of money” and ridiculed him, and Jesus answers: “God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.” The warning is for every listener in every age, and the Catechism repeats the bold words of St John Chrysostom: not to let the poor share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life; the goods we possess are not ours, but theirs (Catechism 2446). The risen Lord does not ask us to despise the world; he asks us to use what passes so as to gain what lasts.
Then Jesus speaks of the law: “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped,” and he gives one example where he restores God's first plan: “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.” Jesus takes marriage back to the beginning, when God made man and woman to become “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). The Church holds that a valid, consummated marriage between baptized persons cannot be dissolved by any human power (Catechism 1614–1615, 2382). This teaching is a word of protection, especially for wives who in the ancient world could be sent away with a single document. It is never a reason to treat with coldness those whose marriages have broken down. Many were abandoned against their will; many carry wounds. The Church is asked to accompany them with patience and love, to help them examine their situation in truth, and to keep them close to the life of the parish (Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, 2016).
The Letter to the Hebrews today sounds severe: “if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,” and “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” What does it mean? The Letter has spent chapters showing that Christ's one sacrifice is the only sacrifice for sin. Whoever deliberately rejects it, trampling on “the Son of God” and outraging “the Spirit of grace,” turns away from the only remedy there is. In the third century some, like the followers of Novatian, read these lines as if the Church could never forgive grave sin after Baptism. The Church rejected that reading and kept the door of Penance open: there is no offence, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive (Catechism 982). On the very evening of his Resurrection the Lord breathed on the apostles and gave them power to forgive sins (John 20:22–23). The fearful thing is not the hand of God but refusing it. King David once chose: “let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great” (2 Samuel 24:14). Let that be our choice too, in the confessional this Easter.
Theme: “You cannot serve God and wealth.”
On this Easter Tuesday: one Master, the covenant of marriage, and the merciful hands of the living God.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:5
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” 1 Timothy 6:10
Apply: Set aside a fixed share of your income for the poor this month, before other spending.
“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24
“Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Mark 10:9
Apply: Pray today for a married couple you know who are struggling, and offer them practical help if you can.
“As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live” Ezekiel 33:11
“But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” 1 John 2:1
Apply: Go to confession this week if you have been staying away.
Christ alone is our Master; money must serve him and the poor.
God's warnings are the voice of his mercy, calling us back to the one sacrifice and the open door of forgiveness.
Take-home resolution: This week, put God first in your spending, and choose his merciful hand in confession.
Dear friends, Christ is risen! Today Jesus says plainly: no slave can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and wealth (Luke 16:13). Money is a good servant and a poor master. It asks for the whole heart, and so does God.
St John Chrysostom said that not to share our goods with the poor is to steal from them, for what we hold is also theirs (in substance). The risen Lord asks us to use what passes so as to gain what lasts.
Jesus also restores marriage to the beginning: what God has joined, no one may separate. The Church holds this firmly, and she is also asked to accompany with love those whose marriages have broken, many of whom were hurt against their will.
The Letter to the Hebrews warns: it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But the fearful thing is to refuse his mercy. On Easter evening Jesus gave the apostles power to forgive sins. Like King David, let us choose to fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great. Amen.
Children, Jesus said: nobody can have two bosses. You cannot serve God and money. Money is useful, but God must always be number one. Can you think of one thing you could share today, a sweet, a toy, a coin, with someone who has less? When we share, we show that God is our boss, not money.
Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, you alone are our Master. Deliver us from the love of money and teach us to use the goods of this world in faithfulness and generosity. Bless husbands and wives with faithful love, and surround with your compassion those whose marriages have been broken. Keep us from ever spurning the blood of the covenant, and when we fall, bring us back to the mercy you gave your Church on the evening of your Resurrection. You live and reign for ever. Amen.