You cannot serve both God and mammon

 

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

Submission to Blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for XXV Sunday in Ordinary Time by Fr. Arthur F. Rojas

© All Rights Reserved personally by Rev. Fr. Arthur F Rojas, September 18 th , 2025 ©

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

Glory to Jesus Christ!

In the Ordinary Form, the readings of Sunday, September 21 st speak to our times quite directly, namely Amos 8:4-7, Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; and Luke 16:1-13. Dear parishioners of the Extraordinary Form, although I know that your readings today are from Galatians 5:25-26, 6:1-10; and Luke 7:11-16, in light of recent events please consider these following points for all Catholics and people of good will.

Two common threads of the readings in the Ordinary Form are the supremacy of God and its impact on how we treat our neighbor, both high and low. Consider the denunciations of the prophet St. Amos of mistreatment of the poor and manipulation of norms by special interests, the Responsorial Psalm’s praise of God’s supremacy and His aid to the poor, the exhortation of the apostle St. Paul to St. Timothy and a broader audience (including you and me) to pray for our civil authorities, and the Gospel’s trenchant reminder that we should maintain God’s trust in us, let alone our trust in Him. As more and more Americans lack appreciation, even simple respect for the image of God in each human person, let alone our neighbor in this country, state, city, or town, from our secularized society’s increasingly overt rejection of a transcendent Supreme Being, thus we cannot be surprised that from turning our collective back on God, then we turn increasingly against each other, starting from the highest echelons of society and wounding so many families and relationships in our midst.

It is facile, in other words a cop-out, for one faction to point fingers at another faction in America when anyone with an attention span past several minutes or a historical memory past the last presidential election would notice that certain public figures who decried cancel culture at one time now clamor for it to advance their causes. Ironically, in quoting the words of a recently murdered public speaker and debater for reviving public debate and encouraging robust and civil exchange of views, the rhetoric and deeds of these persons foment further suppression of the freedoms of speech and expression in our country. Instead of merely reacting, let us think and pray before responding to the contemporary turbulence.

Let’s ask, what would count as actionable “hate speech” in the future when the balance of power changes at one level or another? Would preaching Biblical truth count, whether from a pulpit or on a tee-shirt or via social media? Common experience points to both left and right hands being on the throat of our God-given rights to freedom of speech, and collaterally, the free exercise of religion. As these hands from public and private sectors, even if serially, move to constrict public debate on a range of issues, both domestic and foreign, then as we address and engage each other less and less as neighbors, if not as brethren in Christ when applicable, it will become even easier to dehumanize and demonize each other, as what happened tragically in Spain in the early-to-mid 1930s. While human laws and policies have their proper place to ensure peace and good order, in the spirit of today’s readings more importantly we Americans – starting with us Catholic Americans - need to recover a Godly respect for each other and to reclaim the eroded practices of courtesy and good manners so that we may live in true freedom and not entrench the sway of might or Mammon. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! Our Lady of the Hudson, pray for us!