November 10, 2020

St. Leo the Great

Lk 17: 7-10

“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Serving God with all that we have 

I get uncomfortable when Jesus offers us servant/slave parables, given our nation’s history. On one hand, I know Jesus has wisdom to offer, but on the other, I just don’t want to “go there.” In today’s Gospel, it feels unfair to consider the “master” expecting the servant to prepare something to eat after an entire day in the fields plowing and tending the sheep. That this person does not feel grateful makes it even worse!

And yet, Jesus invites us to shift our perspective. We are first to imagine ourselves as the master, carrying the expectation that daily work will be completed. By the end, however, we see ourselves as the servants. We are not to come before God proud of any service that we render, or expecting any reward. We can’t earn our salvation: that is God’s free gift to offer. All we can do is live in humble service, as we are “obliged to do.”

—Dan Dixon, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province studying at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA.  

 

Prayer

Make us true servants to all those in need.
Filled with compassion in thought, word and deed;
Loving our neighbor, whatever the cost,
Feeding the hungry and finding the lost.

Lord, make us prophets to cry out the way,
Telling the nations of mercy's new day.
Let us break barriers of hatred and scorn,
Speaking of hope to all people forlorn.

Lord, make us healers of body and mind;
Give us your power to bring sight to the blind;
Love to the loveless and gladness for pain,
Filling all hearts with the joy of your name.

—Text of “Make us True Servants” by Susan G. Wente, © 1978, WLP

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