An Ounce of Sense

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, September 21st, 2025:
Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Luke
​16.10-13

​“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?

“No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Social media. Normally I use it to connect with friends, family and local events, but this week I weighed in on a conversation about politics. I know, I know … I ought to know better. Anyway, I won’t make that mistake again. After too much time spent down the rabbit hole, instead of feeling connected and grateful, I felt dispirited, “slimed” even, by some truly senseless and brutal opinions. 

My grandmother was a grand woman for thought-provoking aphorisms, and one such saying springs to mind as I reflect back on this week’s social media experience: “There’s only an ounce of sense in this world, so ’tis no wonder so few have any.” Now, don’t misunderstand. My grandmother was not saying that she always had sense and could afford to look down on those who had none – she wasn’t that kind of person. What she meant, rather, was that true “sense” – in other words, Godly wisdom – is as scarce as hens’ teeth in this world. Caught up in what the herd thinks and says, we grasp the wrong end of the stick entirely: we see the wisdom of the world as proper and the Wisdom of God as foolishness. The only way to escape this “wrong-ended-ness” is, as Saint Paul says, to look with the eyes of faith (1 Corinthians 2:14). Unless we do this, the wisdom of God is entirely unavailable to us and we are bound to act and speak with senselessness, perhaps even brutality. 

In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus says no slave can serve two masters but will be devoted to one and despise the other. If I am committed to be a servant of Christ – and I am, by the grace of God – then I must look at the world with eyes sharpened by “the wisdom from above [which] is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy” (James 3:17). Therefore, I will not feed the wolf of worldly wisdom. I will manage my online time better than I did this week, and I will search for those who seek the ounce of sense in this world so that, God willing, we might help to multiply it.

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Donna Davis

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