[ Today's Readings ]
We are called to be faithful and prudent servants. We need the LORD's help to do so. We need his help to endure to the end.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Without his help we tend to be overwhelmed by selfish impulses. We lose sight of the big picture and try to do anything to make ourselves happy in the short term.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
We do this to the our fellow servants whenever we use them for our ends rather them recognizing them as ends in themselves because they are created to know, love, and serve God. Even if we are doing something good by them, but we are doing it in order to look good, we are using them for our own ends. Instead we need to distribute the spiritual food from God at the proper time. These gifts from God must be shared. We can't use our fellow servants. We can't even ignore them. We must use the blessings we are given to serve them. And this can't be just sometimes when we're feeling spiritual. It must be our default mode of existence.
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
The testimony of Christ is powerful enough to help us to stand firm until the end. It is the source of the spiritual gift by which we ourselves stand firm. It in turn is the spiritual gift we must share with our fellow servants.
God is faithful,
and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
We are called into this fellowship together with our fellow servants. We need the testimony of Christ bearing fruit as spiritual gifts in our lives in order to heed the call. And since it is a fellowship to which we are called we must in turn share that gift with others.
Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works.
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