September 19, 2025 | Liturgical Year C
Readings for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
- Amos 8:4-7
- Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8
- Timothy 2:1-8
- Luke 16:1-13 or 16: 10-13
A Critical Opportunity
President Salvador Allende of Chile,
courtesy Fr. Bob Mosher
During the government of President Salvador Allende (1970-1973) in Chile, the government tried to ensure a more just distribution of the food and land of the nation. This produced complaints from the wealthy that they were forced to eat chicken, while, on the other hand, the poor were amazed and grateful that they could eat chicken!
Father Leo and I rented a house from Señora Raquel, a well known personality in a poor neighborhood of Peñalolén, in the capital city of Santiago. We only found out, weeks later, that she was well-known and admired in the neighborhood for her astuteness, on the morning of September 11th, 1973–when the military forces of the nation violently overthrew Allende’s government.
As jets bombed the Presidential Palace in the downtown area of the capital, Señora Raquel sent her children running to all the neighboring houses. As the official local distributor of government-subsidized food for her area, she had a storeroom where all the chicken and flour, sugar and canned vegetables for each month was kept, and she knew this would be immediately confiscated by the military regime, and she herself could be arrested.
She met the crisis with intelligence, giving away all the stocked items to everyone in the area indiscriminately, and destroying the official accounting book in her possession.She thus gained the gratitude, support and silence of everyone in the area from Day One of a regime that would last for 17 years.
She was never denounced by anyone to the military authorities, or the dreaded secret police, in all that time, thus profiting from that kind of cleverness in the face of a crisis that is praised in Jesus’ parable today, prioritizing relationships over material wealth, and assuring her survival for the future in dark times.
May we also live out our faith in the fair distribution of the world’s goods to all who need them, rather than to worship the accumulation of material wealth as the central goal of our lives, shutting the door to the life that God offers us in abundance, in Christ.
Notes on the Readings
First Reading, Amos 8:4
The prophet Amos condemns the hypocrisy of those who scrupulously observe holy days, while practicing injustice against their poor neighbors. In the Hebrew point of view, evil literally pollutes the land.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8
This psalm expresses the attitude we need throughout all of life; we must never forget the saving works of the Lord. During their life journey, the Israelites (we also) often were/are forgetful of the marvelous saving deeds of the Lord. Daily we seek to recall that God is our rock; we seek to be faithful to our baptismal covenant with God.
Second Reading, I Timothy 2:1-8
The conduct and purpose of community prayer in the second generation of the Early Church (80—90 A.C.E./A.D.) includes prayer for secular authority, since working for peace and reconciliation in society rather than self-isolation is vitally important.
Gospel, Luke 16:1-13 or 16:10-13
Relationships trump finances, in the priorities of those who follow the teachings of Jesus—in fact, material wealth should be shared with the poor as a sign of one’s openness to God, and of one’s rejection of the worship of material riches, the idolatry of “Mammon”.
Notes and Commentary by by Fr. Bob Mosher, a member of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban.