Luke 17:7-10

Titus 2:1-8,11-14

Psalm 37:3-4, 18 and 23, 27 and 29

Luke 17:7-10

Jesus said to the Apostles:

“Who among you would say to your servant

who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,

‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?

Would he not rather say to him,

‘Prepare something for me to eat.

Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.

You may eat and drink when I am finished’?

Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?

So should it be with you.

When you have done all you have been commanded, say,

‘We are unprofitable servants;

we have done what we were obliged to do.’”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I am your servant. I am in awe of your Son’s humility. He served and gave himself fully without reserve. He is my model. I am your child and will, with the gift of your grace, imitate your Son to the best of my ability.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Masters or Servants? In the Gospel, Jesus invites his Apostles to ponder their role as leaders in the Church: Should they act as masters or as servants? At the beginning of the parable, Jesus invites his Apostles to contemplate how they, if they were masters, would treat their servants. If their servant just came in from plowing their fields or tending their sheep, would they, as a master, expect their servants to sit down and eat a good meal or to continue working and wait on them? Naturally, if they were a master, they would expect continued service from their servants. At the end of the parable, however, Jesus turns the tables and invites his Apostles to identify themselves not with a master but with the servants. Just as a servant should not expect their master to be exuberant and grateful when they have only done what they have been commanded to do, so also the Apostles should be humble in their service to their God and Lord. Jesus is the servant par excellence. He is the Lord who stoops down, casts off his garment, and washes the feet of his servants to cleanse them from their sin.

2. Unprofitable Servants: Just as Jesus is the Lord who serves and waits on his servants (Luke 12:37), Jesus’ Apostles are to imitate their Lord and master and serve the servants of God. In the parable, “Jesus is teaching his apostles what true service means. This lesson particularly applies to the missionary tasks that the apostles as servants (2 Corinthians 4:5) will carry out: plowing to spread God’s kingdom (Luke 9:62; 1 Corinthians 9:10), tending sheep as pastors (Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 9:19), and giving them to eat and drink in the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 11:25-26). Such is the stewardship that Jesus entrusts to the apostles (see Luke 12:42; 16:10; 1 Corinthians 9:17)” (Gadenz, The Gospel of Luke, 292).

3. The Foundation of our Moral Life: In his Letter to Titus, Paul gives all sorts of exhortations to virtuous and moral living. He exhorts Titus, as a pastor of the Church, to be a teacher of moral conduct in accord with sound doctrine. Mature men in the community need to be respectable and sound in their faith. “Elder women should likewise be respectable in life and conversation and train the younger women, lest God’s word be blasphemed because of Christians’ behavior” (Prothro, The Apostle Paul and His Letters, 251). Young men need to be prudent. Paul asks that all the members of the Church – young and old, male and female – imitate “Christ, who was crucified by the imperial engine of violence.” This imitation, then, “is not one of open rebellion but one of subversive suffering and enduring patience in evangelization by word and deed” (Prothro, The Apostle Paul and His Letters, 254). 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, empower me with your grace and virtues to do good works and to be a good example for my family and community. Sustain me as I strive for holiness and perfection in the Christian life.

Living the Word of God: What virtues do I easily practice? Do I know what has come naturally to me because of my personality type, what I have acquired through hard work, and what I have been given gratuitously by God? What are my current virtues (strengths) and vices (weaknesses)? If I could grow in one virtue during the upcoming month, what would it be?