God remembers everything

Homily

19th September 2022

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

 

God remembers everything. Nothing is forgotten. And we cannot serve two masters, and the Gospel is asking us to choose between God and money. Yes, we have a choice. God wants us to freely choose. Things we think we have done unnoticed will eventually come back to bite us, and we will have to pay the cost, one way or another.

In today’s world, especially over the last couple of years, we have seen everything being turned upside day. COVID had us locked inside, across the globe. Whereas many struggled psychologically trying to cope with the isolation, others found loved ones being taken from them and not being allowed to be with them in their last moments. There was a lot of heartache.

Yet, at the same time, there seemed to be a lot of people who were reaping great rewards on the stock exchange. Many getting richer. While others struggled to make ends meet and needed to visit the Food Banks regularly, even with a good salary. There seemed to be an imbalance of things.

We saw certain leaders having a great time with parties, telling everyone else to self-isolate. One rule for some and another for everyone else – at least that’s what they think. But all is remembered. And they’ll be caught in the long grass, just like the velociraptors chasing humans in the movie Jurassic Park. Or perhaps others will say, long runs the fox – eventually it gets caught.

The bad steward knew how to make a good deal so that even in losing his job he would be okay, by swindling his master even further to gain favour with others so they would become his clients. Yet, the Master knew. How else would he have been able to praise his dishonesty for being astute?

It may be that the bad steward could rightly assess the situation and turn it to his advantage but was it right? In the film ‘Family Man’, Nicholas Cage’s character Jack Campbell is a rich, lonely guy who expects everyone to work on Christmas Day. On his way home he calls into a shop where a young man is told his winning lottery ticket is a fake. The young man pulls out a gun and threatens the shopkeeper, but Jack offers to buy the ticket for the price of the winnings, a mere $238. The young man agrees the exchange is made, and he leaves. Jack catches up with the young man in the street and offers to help him. The young man tells Jack that what is about to happen he has brought upon himself.

Jack returns home to an empty but luxurious apartment. When he wakes the following morning he finds a wife, kids and a dog. He is in a rundown house. Bewildered he struggles to cope with this new identity but as the months go by, he realises that this is a better life, the one where he is struggling to be a good husband and dad yet loved by his wife and kids. Upon this realisation, he meets the young man again, who is now a shopkeeper about to be swindled out of some money by a young girl who is not honest with her change. Jack realises that he must go back to his old lonely, rich life. And soon he wakes up back in his luxurious apartment.

However, with his new insights, he takes the courage to rekindle a lost love and correct the path he took to make a better life.

This is just a movie, but we all have opportunities every day to make a difference. To not be like the children of this world, yet we can still be astute, not for our benefit but for the benefit of others, by doing the right thing. It may not be easy, but it will be remembered.

Jesus Christ was rich, but made himself poor for our sake, to make us rich out of his poverty. Amen.