To Love or To Use?

Reflections on the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Amos 8:4-7, 1 Timothy 2:1-8, Luke 16:1-13

Augustine’s famous principle of ordered love (dilectio ordinata) dictates that we should love things according to their proper order. God is to be loved supremely as the ultimate “end”. People are to be loved in God as fellow image-bearers and objects of His love. And finally, money/possessions are to be used (loved only in terms of their instrumental value) for loving God and neighbour. He wrote, “To enjoy something is to hold fast to it in love for its own sake. To use something is to apply whatever it may be to the purpose of obtaining what you love” (De Doctrina Christiana). In this perspective, therefore, we are to love people and use money. Our world, however, proposes the opposite: “Love money, use people”. We pursue wealth at the expense of people, valuing them for their usefulness and commodifying relationships, turning people into mere networking opportunities. This distortion is ancient, and it’s precisely what our readings today confront us with, demanding a radical Christian reversal: use money, love people.

Amos, in the first reading, thunders against the raw injustice of loving money and using people. He paints a picture of merchants utterly corrupted by greed. They chafe at religious festivals because they interrupt their profiteering. They dream of exploiting the poor: “skimping on the measure, boosting the price, cheating with dishonest scales”. They see human beings, especially the needy and the vulnerable, not as images of God, but as objects to be trampled for silver and grain. God’s response is fierce: “Never will I forget a thing they have done!”. This is the bitter fruit of loving money: it hardens the heart, blinds us to the dignity of others, and invites divine judgment.

Then we encounter Jesus’ perplexing parable of the Dishonest Steward. At first glance, it seems astounding. Why commend a crook? However, upon closer examination, we realise that the steward faces a crisis. Fired for mismanagement, he realises his love of money and use of people has left him friendless and doomed. In this moment of desperation, he has a profound epiphany: Relationships are more valuable than riches. He understands that clinging to his penny won't save him. So, he uses his master's remaining resources to create goodwill among the debtors. He sacrifices immediate, dishonest gain for the long-term security of human relationships and hospitality. He shifts from using people for money to using money for people. This is the core of the reversal. The steward grasped, in his worldly way, the principle Jesus states plainly: “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings”.

Money is temporary and will fail. On the contrary, the relationships we build, the love we show, and the dignity we affirm using the resources entrusted to us bear eternal significance. The steward used his master’s money to build bridges after realising that people are the true treasure. Jesus then drives the point home with stark clarity: To serve mammon is to love it, to make it the ultimate goal, which inevitably leads to using people. To serve God is to love Him and love what He loves – His people – and to use everything else, including money, in service of that love. Paul, in the second reading, urges us to pray for everyone, especially those in authority, not just for our comfort, but “that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness”. The order of our relationship with money and people directly impacts our relationship with God. We cannot truly worship while exploiting our neighbour or hoarding our wealth.

The liturgy invites us to audit our hearts: identify ways and means in which the worldly principle of “loving money, using people” influences our spending, ambition, time, or view of the needy. We are invited to choose to see every person’s inherent God-given dignity, not their utility, and intentionally use money as a tool for love: build bridges, restore dignity, alleviate suffering through fair wages, ethical choices, generosity, and supporting justice. We are called to build true, eternal wealth by investing in relationships through time, forgiveness, hospitality, and kindness. While the world screams, “love money, use people”, Christ commands the great reversal: “Use money, love people”. For where our treasure is, our heart follows.