So should it be with you.
No matter how good we are, no matter how many works of mercy we do, we aren't so great that God actually needs us. We don't put him in our debt by doing good works. He creates everything from nothing and sustains the world by his word of power (cf. Heb. 1:3). "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (cf. Col. 1:17). So of course we should say, "We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'"
On the other hand, in a different place we read that he does have a labor shortage. Indeed, we see that "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few" (cf. Luk. 10:2). And then we read that "we are God's coworkers" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:1). We begin to think there are things things that God can't get done without us. But that isn't right.
There are, however, things which won't get done without us. There are people who won't hear the gospel if we do not speak. There are blessings which will remain locked unless we ask for them. But this is not because we are somehow necessary.
We are made coworkers not because he needs us, but because he elevates us to that dignity. This is another way to describe what Peter calls becoming "partakers of the divine nature" (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4). It is God allowing his children work with him to help us grow, "because" the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son" (cf. Heb. 12:6).
We need to realize that we aren't supposed to go out to the harvest on our own. Instead, we are told to "ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest" (cf. Luk. 10:2). We are to be channels of his grace by asking for it and by cooperating with it.
When the master in the parable says "Prepare something for me to eat" he is not doing so because he is thinking only of himself. He is asking in the same way that Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for water. Even though Jesus does receive water from the woman he is ultimately inviting her to drink of the living water that comes from him alone. When Jesus asks us to feed him, perhaps in the poor and the hungry, it is at once an invitation to feed upon him in the Eucharist if only we "knew the gift of God and who it is that asks" (cf. Joh. 4:10).
So, when we see ourselves as "unprofitable servants" it shouldn't be a woe is me negative self-image type of thing. It is meant to change the way we think of our work so that we can see it as a gift. We can then live it fully and not just like people counting the days until retirement.
Instead of living with the hope of eventual rest and self-satisfaction we live in the hope of the master coming home. We hope for his coming not so much so that he can fulfill our desires but so that we can finally offer all that we are to him.
as we await the blessed hope,
the appearance of the glory of the great God
and of our savior Jesus Christ,
When we hope in him in this way he does bring us more than we can ask or imagine. We are now empty of desires which are too small for him and ready for all that he longs to give us.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart’s requests.
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