Lk 20: 27-38
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.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Being Put to the Test
I have never liked taking tests. They always stir in me a long lingering feeling that I am not good enough or smart enough or worthy. And so, passages like our Gospel today make me uneasy. We have, again, a group of people who are skeptical of Jesus and attempt to trap him through a kind of test. In this case they want to trap him to somehow prove that resurrection is not real.
But, we know that when Jesus is put to the test, he always leans on love and on the truth of life eternal. And for us, Jesus reveals this love and life eternal through his own suffering, death, and resurrection. So when we feel that anxiety of being tested, let’s remember that Jesus offers us the one answer that’s most important – that we are worthy of love and that eternal life awaits us.
—Fr. Eric Immel, SJ, is a vocation promoter for the Midwest Jesuits. He was ordained in June 2022. Learn more about Jesuit vocations at beajesuit.org.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for being my companion when life offers me tests. Help me to remember that you have the answers I need, and that I am good enough. Amen.
—Fr. Eric Immel, SJ