Watchful Servants - Reflection by Deacon Steve

Image: nhla.com

In our lives today there is no limit to the worries we face. Whether economic or financial matters, worries about our families, or our health.  Sometimes, no matter how much we try to remain focused on the important things in our life, remaining positive in our outlook and perspectives, these worries can cause us to be doubtful and maybe even negative about what lies ahead for us in life.

In the Gospel for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time our Lord suggests that we, “Be dressed for action… be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks…”

The parable about the watchful servant tells us that our Lord will show up at times we do not expect him to. It is a reminder that the Master will surprise us “ordinary servants” while just doing the best we can. For some spiritual writers surprise is another name for grace.

And so with God’s grace opening our hearts
there will occur from time to time special moments
where we will experience the divine, albeit in small bits.

Our Lord knocks on our door in the ordinary course of our lives when we are simply fulfilling our family or job responsibilities, but especially when presented with the opportunity to serve others, including notably, the poor and the suffering.

If we are alert and open the door when our Lord knocks, we will recognize the master arriving from the wedding feast. More importantly, the Master will bring the wedding feast to us, serving us and allowing his abundant life and our life to flow into each other. 

“Blessed are those… whom the master finds alert when he comes… he will come and serve them.”

Anxious and Troubled?

This Sunday's gospel reading about the visit of Jesus to the home of Martha and Mary generates more than its fair share of popular opinions from people who hear it. Understandably, many people empathise with Martha, feeling that she unfairly got the short end of the stick from Jesus and that Mary got off like a Goody Two-shoes.

To be clear: Jesus did NOT pass judgement on Martha's acts of service themselves. That would not be consistent with Jesus' description of himself as having come to serve, not to be served, and his mandate to the apostles in the Gospel of John when he washed their feet at the Last Supper. 

Listen again to what Jesus actually said: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled..." Other English translations use words like: worried, bothered, upset, distracted, fretting, fussing. In a nutshell, Martha's preoccupation with fulfilling society's expectations of the perfect hostess, and her resentment at Mary's disregard for these expectations, meant that Martha didn't hear a word that Jesus was saying. Houses in Jewish Palestine of the day were not large. Jesus, who could teach thousands, would have been audible anywhere in the house and Martha would have been able to hear Jesus if she had only chosen to listen. 

We have a soft spot for Martha because each of us can so easily identify with her resentment, a resentment that must have built up so much that she actually interrupted Jesus with an accusing question: "Master, do you not care that my sister has left me to do the serving alone?" Martha wasn't only resentful towards Mary, but even towards Jesus himself whom she saw aiding and abetting Mary's 'laziness'. If her brother Lazarus was present with the men that day she was probably resentful towards him too. But instead of going quietly to Mary and whispering in her ear for some help, she brashly 'goes to the top', interrupting Jesus while he is teaching. That made such an impression that the story made its way into the gospel tradition. What Jesus taught there that day did not even get recorded.

Resentment is probably an 'under-confessed' and under-repented 'sin'. The reason for that is that it is almost always fully justified in our minds. "Darn right I'm upset! Didn't you see what he got away with? Didn't you read what she said? Why don't more people step up and (... fill in your hobby horse here)?"

This Sunday's gospel is an opportunity for a mini examination of conscience. What resentments have I been carrying? In the home, with my spouse, my children, my neighbours, my work colleagues, my Vincentian confreres? A good place to do this exercise is setting aside 15 or 20 minutes and sitting at the feet of Jesus.

The Good Samaritan - a Vincentian Take

For a good part of my life, Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan left me feeling very conflicted and burdened with guilt. On the one hand, I obviously did not want to be identified with the priest and the scribe. On the other hand, imitating the good Samaritan presented itself as involving heroic sacrifice that I doubted I am capable of. It was only relatively recently that I started gaining a certain insight into the words of Jesus: "Go and do likewise."

Clearly, Jesus cannot be asking us to slavishly look on the road for victims of robbers, and take them to a motel or hospital. What we are called to imitate is not the precise actions that the Samaritan did, but what he felt in his heart that energised him to take appropriate action: he was moved with compassion, literally, filled with pity, and then he just knew what he had to do, not because of a law or prescription, but because of his heart. Interestingly, this is exactly the same Greek word used to describe what Jesus felt when he looked at the crowds and was "moved with compassion" because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Sheep without a shepherd

Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata presents a wonderful modern day example of someone whose life was driven by her compassion. A very different take on where compassion can lead you can be found with Saint Dorothy Day whose heart was filled with compassion for workers and their families who were at the mercy of ruthless employers, and corporations who were out to maximise profits for shareholders no matter the cost to their workers. As Vincentians we can find great inspiration in the model of compassion offered to us in Blessed Frederick Ozanam, our founder. He manages to blend the best of both Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day by his example, firstly, of direct care and compassion for the poor, but also in educating the society of his day regarding the root causes of poverty, and the unjust circumstances keeping the poor in their poverty, and making them ever poorer.

Like the Good Samaritan, and Jesus himself, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day and Frederick Ozanam did not approach their life's work as a burden demanded by any law or prescription, but as the natural outflow of hearts filled with compassion. Now Jesus tells us: "Go and do likewise."