Serving One Master

Jesus warms is in Today's Gospel that we cannot serve two masters and sets up too opposite poles:  God and wealth.  The Pharisees, Luke tells us, "loved money." (Lk 16: 15) and evidently had lost sight of the ONE MASTER, choosing wealth and esteem over God.
St. Martin of Tours, whose Memorial is today, faced a similar choice:  he was a soldier, but refused to fight and was imprisoned for his disobedience.  However, upon his release the opportunity to choose service to God arose when he saw a beggar shivering with the cold and gave him half his cloak.  In a dream, he saw that the beggar was Jesus.  Martin sought Bishop Hilary as his spiritual guide and became a hermit, but was eventually pressed into becoming a Bishop by the acclamation of the people and served God faithfully until his death.
On this Veterans Day, we salute the men and women who have chosen to serve God by serving their country.  We pray that the examples of St. Martin and St. Michael the Archangel inspire them to keep their focus on the ONE MASTER while doing their best to comply with the demands of military life.  We pray for all those who have given their lives, the ultimate gift, in the line of duty.
This Verterans Day Prayer might help us serve them:

St. Michael the Archangel, you are the prince of the heavenly host of angels and the guardian of souls. You watch over us and protect us as we strive to live with faithfulness. As patron saint of soldiers, we ask you to look after those who have served our nation in the military. Guard our veterans, who have placed themselves in harm’s way to defend our country, and help them find meaningful work and relationships. Bring us all safely to our final heavenly home. We ask this through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
 Bro. Rene