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“The Idle Servant”
by Nicolaes Maes, 1655 |
Readings for Wednesday of the
Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem
Bible, [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: Romans 6:12-18
Brothers and sisters:
Sin must not reign over your
mortal bodies
so that you obey their
desires.
And do not present the parts
of your bodies to sin
as weapons for wickedness,
but present yourselves to God
as raised from the dead to life
and the parts of your bodies
to God
as weapons for righteousness.
For sin is not to have any
power over you,
since you are not under the
law but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin
because we are not under the law
but under grace?
Of course not!
Do you not know that if you
present yourselves
to someone as obedient
slaves,
you are slaves of the one you
obey,
either of sin, which leads to
death,
or of obedience, which leads
to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that,
although you were once slaves of sin,
you have become obedient from
the heart
to the pattern of teaching to
which you were entrusted.
Freed from sin, you have
become slaves of righteousness.
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Commentary on Rom 6:12-18
In the first part of this selection, St. Paul exhorts the Romans
to remain faithful to the teachings of Christ and to avoid sin. He uses the
unique existential argument that the Law of Moses defines sin, and, therefore,
Christians are not under the law but under the grace of Christ.
In the second part he defends the argument that obedience to
Christ sets his audience on the road to salvation, since obeying Christ’s
commandments leads to righteousness and frees them from sin, which was
introduced by Adam and defined by the law.
CCC: Rom 6:12 2819; Rom 6:17 197,
1237, 1733
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 124:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8
R. (8a) Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Had not the LORD been with
us,
let Israel say, had not the LORD been
with us–
When men rose up against us,
then would they have
swallowed us alive;
When their fury was inflamed
against us.
R. Our help is in the name
of the Lord.
Then would the waters have
overwhelmed us;
The torrent would have swept
over us;
over us then would have swept
the raging waters.
Blessed be the LORD, who did
not leave us
a prey to their teeth.
R. Our help is in the name
of the Lord.
We were rescued like a bird
from the fowlers’ snare;
Broken was the snare,
and we were freed.
Our help is in the name of
the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is in the name
of the Lord.
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Commentary on Ps 124:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8
Psalm 124 is a
song of thanksgiving. In these verses God is praised for rescuing his chosen
from their enemies and natural disasters so they could live in the freedom he
had promised in his covenant.
CCC: Ps 124:8 287
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Gospel: Luke 12:39-48
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be sure of this:
if the master of the house
had known the hour
when the thief was coming,
he would not have let his
house be broken into.
You also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not
expect, the Son of Man will come.”
Then Peter said,
“Lord, is this parable meant
for us or for everyone?”
And the Lord replied,
“Who, then, is the faithful
and prudent steward
whom the master will put in
charge of his servants
to distribute the food
allowance at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom
his master on arrival finds doing so.
Truly, I say to you, he will
put him
in charge of all his
property.
But if that servant says to
himself,
‘My master is delayed in
coming,’
and begins to beat the
menservants and the maidservants,
to eat and drink and get
drunk,
then that servant’s master
will come
on an unexpected day and at
an unknown hour
and will punish the servant
severely
and assign him a place with
the unfaithful.
That servant who knew his
master’s will
but did not make preparations
nor act in accord with his will
shall be beaten severely;
and the servant who was
ignorant of his master’s will
but acted in a way deserving
of a severe beating
shall be beaten only lightly.
Much will be required of the
person entrusted with much,
and still more will be
demanded of the person entrusted with more.”
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on Lk 12:39-48
Following the Lord’s initial exhortation to his
audience about the need to remain faithful, even if it seemed the hour was
getting late, St. Peter asks the Lord if that message is for everyone or just
for the disciples. The Lord responds with a parable similar to that which was
used in the previous verses (Luke
12:35-38), and then punctuates it with a special
injunction for the disciples. He uses the analogy of a servant entrusted with
the master’s property, concluding with: “Much will be required of the person
entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted
with more.” The final verse in this passage answers St. Peter’s
question clearly.
"Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow
the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of
our earthly life is completed (cf. Hebrews 9:27), we may merit to enter
with Him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed (cf. Matthew 25:31-46) and not,
like the wicked and slothful servants (cf. Matthew 25:26), be ordered to depart into
the eternal fire (cf. Matthew 25:41)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium",
48).
CCC: Lk 12:35-40 2849
-------------------------------------------
Reflection:
There is an interesting
parallel between the passage from St.
Paul’s Letter to the Romans from the first reading and
the Gospel of St. Luke’s parable of the servants. In St. Paul’s letter, he makes a complex
argument that, rather than being wholly good as the Pharisees may have
supposed, the Law of Moses actually introduced sin to mankind by defining acts
as sinful (ironic summary of existentialism). Before the law, mankind was ignorant of good
and evil as defined by God. How could
there be sin if sin was not ever defined.
It would be like going to visit a person at their home and being told
upon entering that no one was allowed to wear shoes inside. The children growing up in such a home would
assume that wearing shoes in the house was a bad thing since it was forbidden
to them.
The Law of Moses defined
God’s rules to the Hebrews, and in their interpretation of those laws whole
classes of regulations sprang up. The
problem arose when the children of Israel ignored the authority of God
the Father. He sent his only Son, the
foretold Messiah, to fulfill the law and to teach God’s children what the law
was intended to communicate about God’s will.
When the Hebrews rejected the Lord, they rejected the freedom from sin
Jesus offered, and they became slaves to an unfulfilled law which bound them in
sin.
The parallel we find between St. Paul’s apologia and
the teachings of Christ in the Gospel is found in the existential nature of the
arguments. In the Gospel, St. Peter
questions Jesus, “Lord, is this parable
meant for us or for everyone?” – do the attitudes and instructions being
given to the disciples regarding fidelity and service to the Gospel apply to
all of the faithful? Jesus answers with
a story the moral of which is the degree to which the people of God will be
held accountable for their faithfulness.
It is in direct proportion to the authority they assume in God’s
service.
In other words, we define our
responsibility by our ability to act upon the faith we have been given. Therefore, the more faith we are given, the
greater insights into God’s will for us, the more responsible we will be held
for acting on those impulses and applying the gifts we are given. Again, using analogy, the person who walks
into a city street on a clear night and looks up might see as many as a
thousand stars. That person could not be
faulted for seeing so few. They could
only see what their eyesight and the conditions of darkness allowed. That same person who walks to the summit of a
mountain on a clear night would see thousands upon thousands of stars and might
be amazed at what they could not see before.
Going even further, if that person had access to images from the Hubble
Space Telescope and could see the billions upon billions of stars and galaxies
that exist unseen from earth, they would be overwhelmed by the sheer enormity
of what can be seen of the universe God created.
Great things are expected of those
of us with great access to the indwelling Holy Spirit and the faith that God
walks with us always. The person with
great strength of spirit is intended to be vigilant always for the means that
can be used for God’s greater glory. Our
prayer today is that we always seek the face of God in all we do and thereby
remain vigilant so the Lord may never find us inattentive.
Pax
Friends in Christ, please
pray from the repose of the soul of my longtime friend and colleague David
Faulkner who has returned to the Lord.
He helped me with this apostolate for over 10 years and was assisted in
this by his wife, Joanne, when he recently became ill. May his soul rest in peace and may the God of
all consolation be with Joanne and his family.
Amen
[1]
The picture is “The Idle Servant” by Nicolaes Maes, 1655.
[2]
S.S. Commemoratio[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the
psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is
for private use only.
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