Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 8, 2025
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.”
Today’s gospel reading continues Luke’s account of the opposition that Jesus encountered along the way of his journey to Jerusalem. This time, Jesus encounters a group of Pharisees who sneer at him after he declares that one cannot truly serve God while also serving “mammon.” Up until recently, whenever I would read or hear this reading, I would think to myself, “Of course, I don’t worship money or inordinately desire wealth. What’s wrong with these Pharisees?!?”
But as I have reflected more on this passage, I have come to recognize that Jesus is actually warning us about something less obvious (and often evading my immediate awareness) than the obsession with money and prosperity. Jesus is warning against having a divided heart.
Discerning whether our heart is divided requires much more than recognizing those times that our interests and our actions are clearly in opposition to God’s will and our own well-being. It involves an honest and careful assessment of our priorities and actions each day. Jesus is confronting us with the question of whether we are sincerely responding in love and gratitude to the abundant gifts that our heavenly Father bestows upon us.
Anything in our normal, everyday lives that distracts us from God’s fulfillment of our deepest desire for union with God counts as “mammon.” In my experience, resisting the urge to check my phone, or going straight to work emails, or running to get my kids out of bed for school as my first “act” of the day helps me remain open to God’s transformative love.
At the very moment we awake in the morning, offering a simple prayer of gratitude to God for granting another day of life and resolving to live this day for God is perhaps one of the surest safeguards against dividing our hearts.
Prayer
Giver of our daily bread, remind us of the many small gifts you give us each day. Help us recognize your constant and sustaining help supporting us today. Be with us as we receive our daily bread. Amen.
Saint of the Day
We do not know much about Pope Deusdedit, also called Adeodatus I, but the fragments of his biography that have been passed down to us certainly qualify him as a saint.
He was a Roman who lived after the fall of Rome—his society was troubled by unrest and civil disorder.
He was only pope for three years, but during that time, he led the clergy of the church in caring for the poor and the sick. When an earthquake ravaged the city and left behind a disorder of the skin that afflicted many people, he was front and center in the effort to care for them.
He was the first pope to seal documents with a bullae, a leaden seal—this is the source of the term “papal bulls” that continue to describe letters from the pope. One of his seals still exists today.
Deusdedit died in 618 and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
Pope St. Deusdedit, you used your short pontificate to care for the sick and poor, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Pope St. Deusdedit is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed October 10, 2024
