"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'?
We tend to feel sympathetic for the servant who endured the long day in the field but who had work yet to do before he could rest. But should the solid day's work he had done actually exempt him from serving the master? Was the master now somehow in his debt and such a way that he owed him leisure? Or was the master not still the master and he the servant? No doubt many who labor in the vineyard of the Lord expend considerable effort in what is involved in that work day to day. But their service to others does not exempt them of their own duty toward the Lord. As they tended to the sheep or the crops they then also need to tend to their own relationship with Jesus. They were not permitted to be lax in this regard. It is of considerable importance that they not only work for the master but also love him, and signaled that love directly. In some ways, it is true, feeding the sheep does count as feeding Christ. But when our work becomes in excuse to neglect our duties of devotion this is something else. This is important to remember because there is always a tension where we can lose ourselves in what is required of us and forget that which is supposed to be the core and foundation of our efforts. The primary symptom that this has been forgotten is a sense of entitlement, in which we believe that God now owes us this or that. But we never put God in our debt. The fact that we are called to serve him is a privilege rather than a burden. We should not try to find rest apart from him, but rather the rest that comes through being faithful to him.
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'?
When we insist on putting ourselves first our priorities are misaligned and we can't enjoy the true rest promised to the followers of Jesus. We are called to order our lives to him rather than insisting that he reorder his life and Kingdom toward our particular idiosyncrasies. Not insisting on our own merit while serving in the field and serving at table help prepare us to appreciate and enjoy the full magnitude of the gift in which he himself waits upon us. We know that it is ultimately this gift of grace that is the climax and culmination of his plans for us. We receive a foretaste of it in the Eucharist. And it is this feast that we will enjoy forever in heaven.
Patricia Fauccett - God And Man At Table Are Sat Down
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