Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time 2025

Published: September 19, 2025

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily for the School of Spiritual Direction at St. John Center in Little Rock Sept. 19, 2025.

Bishop Taylor

One of the major concerns we see expressed throughout the Bible and especially in the Gospel of Luke and the letters of St. Paul has to do with the danger of money, which can easily become a false god, especially in a free market economy like our own and that of the first-century Roman Empire. 

In our first reading today, St. Paul writes: "Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation and into a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge them into ruin and destruction." And then to emphasize this warning and to make it as broad as possible, St. Paul adds: "For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains."

But isn't it true that money is necessary as a vehicle of exchange in any developed economy? Bartering is very inefficient! So is money then a "necessary" evil? No, it's not an evil at all — Paul says that the "love" of money is the root of all evils. Money itself can be used for good or for ill. It's like fire: we need it to cook our food and to keep warm in the winter, but if misused fire can kill you. In a similar way, money — if misused — can kill your soul. Which is why Paul warns us that money poses a real danger to our relationship with God and each other.

There's only one way to avoid that danger: to recognize that it all belongs to God and that we must be faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to us. That means using money the way God wants us to use it: fulfilling our God-given responsibilities to our family, our Church, our community and our world. We see this in today's Gospel where Luke says that the women who accompanied Jesus and his apostles "provided for them out of their resources."

In our first reading, after warning us about the spiritual peril posed by the disordered pursuit of money, St. Paul goes on to describe what we should pursue instead: "righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness." We do have to work to earn a living and meet our obligations, but there's a seldom pursued way to do this that is worthy of a Christian...and a far more commonly pursued way to do so that is not--and therein lies the danger!

Therein also lies an unexpected benefit you receive from your commitment to the Lord as spiritual directors. You are like the women in today's Gospel, you also "provide for them" generously out of your resources. And isn't it true that your personal and financial commitment to serve the Lord in this way has had the added benefit of helping you keep your priorities right in every other area of your life? Once it really sinks in that we don't really own anything, that it all really belongs to God--and by that I mean everything, not just our possessions but also our health, our job, our children, our reputation...it's all in God's hands! We just have the use of these things temporarily and will one day be required to give an accounting for our stewardship of all that God has entrusted to us. Your ministry should, among other things, help you to remember to keep the role of money in your life in proper perspective...helping you to use it as God wants you to use it! Reminding us that while we do have to earn a living, we must heed St. Paul's warning never to allow the pursuit of possessions to kill our souls, plunging us and our loved ones "into ruin and destruction.” He reminds us that there are many far more important things to pursue, including "righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness."