25TH SUNDAY YEAR C 21ST SEPTEMBER 2025

Amos was a Shepard when he was called by God to be a Prophet to his people. He was sent to Samaria in the North, from the southern town of Bethlehem to denounce the racketeering of the rich against the poor. The people will not listen to Amos and they pushed him out of the town while the racketeering of the poor continued. Since God always answer the prayers of the poor and the oppressed, the Assyrians took over their cities and nation.

 This reality of the rich countries racketeering the poor nations of their resources still continue in our days. Buying natural and human resources with ordinary minted papers in the name of money, unequal business deals, unfair international trade deals and other dubious means to keep the poor people, and vulnerable nations in perpetual poverty. Amos voice still echoes in our days, for us to be just in our day-to-day dealings with people.

 Paul is urging us to always pray. Prayer is the simplest way to remain connected to God and to humanity. We should prayer not only for ourselves but also for others, and most especially for those in authority. Bad politicians and rulers, have often misquoted this passage of Paul’s letter to Timothy, often when the citizens show concerns and complain about their atrocities, they are quick to quote from our Second reading of today that “we are told to pray for our leaders”. Yes, we pray for them to change from their evil ways and do the right things for the people, like Amos and in the Gospel of today, we are to call our leaders to accountability.

We can easily miss the message and lesson of the Gospel about the shrewd steward, Jesus is not praising or supporting a fraudulent person. Jesus is showing us how evil people go a long way and use all their capacities to perfect their evil acts. It is a call for us to use all our energy, wisdom, time and all we have to promote goodness. Evil thrives when the good people do nothing. The Gospel also warns us to use wisely our resources and not to be slaves of money and material things, as we are wise to manage our resources we should also be wise to manage our Spiritual life which is more important.

Jerome  Otitoyomi  DUKIYA . C.S.Sp.