OT XIX [C] Wis 18:6-9; Heb 11:1-2, 8-19; Lk 12:32-48 

 

 The readings today focus on two major themes, faith and readiness. Faith is about putting our trust and belief into something, even if we cannot see the results now or in the near future. Faith enables us to keep going forward according to our vision and values, even when the goal seems quite out of sight and at times when the prize seems so unlikely to be achieved.

 

The story of Abraham is extraordinary because even without seeing the promise fulfilled, Abraham never stopped believing in God's promise to him. Abraham trusted in the promise, expected its fulfilment, and lived it as a deep truth even though he would not see the promise completely fulfilled in his lifetime. Abraham is a wonderful model of faith.

After speaking about faith, Jesus also tells us about readiness or preparedness in this parable of the master of a household going on a journey to a wedding banquet. The servants of the household faithfully carry out their duties while he is away. All the time, they are alert to the moment when he returns from the wedding feast and knocks on the door. He will need at least one of the servants to let him in. The servants have no way of knowing when he will return. They didn’t have cell phones like we have now to call ahead and alert. It could be at any time of the day or night. Someone has to be constantly on the watch to let him in when he knocks on the door. Their vigilance is rewarded by the master on his return. In an extraordinary role reversal, he becomes their servant. He sits them down at the table, puts on an apron and serves them a meal. An ordinary master would not do it for his servants for being loyal to this way. 

In telling this parable, Jesus was speaking about himself and his relationship with his disciples, with us. The master in the apron who serves his servants is Jesus himself. According to the gospel of John, this is what Jesus did at the last supper. The disciples were seated at the table, but Jesus got up from the table. Rather than putting an apron around himself, he put a towel around himself and washed the feet of his disciples. Even though he was their Lord and Master, he performed a very menial task that was normally the task of servants. He gave himself in love for his disciples. In the words of Saint Paul, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. This very menial service pointed ahead to an even greater act of self-emptying the following day, when, from the cross, he emptied himself of life itself in loving service of all humanity. The Last Supper was also the first Eucharist. At every Eucharist, the risen Lord empties himself out of love for us. He serves us by giving himself to us under the very humble elements of bread and wine. It is the Lord in an apron that we celebrate every time we gather for Mass.

The Lord who comes to us in the Eucharist comes to us throughout the course of our daily lives. Just as the wealthy man knocked on the door of the gospel reading, every day the Lord knocks on the door of our lives, waiting to be admitted. The expression ‘the knock on the door’, often has a sinister connotation. In certain periods of history and in certain parts of the world, the knock on the door spoke of danger and often death. However, the Lord knocks on the door of our lives as one who wants to serve us so that we may have life to the full. In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, the risen Lord says to the church, ‘Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me’. Whenever we respond to the Lord’s knocking on the door of our lives, he will say to us the same thing that he said to Zacchaeus, ‘Today, salvation has come to this house’

       His primary desire is to serve us rather than have us serve him. Yes, he wants us to serve him by sharing in his work of bringing God’s hospitable love to others. That is what Jesus means when he says to his disciples in the gospel reading that ‘you are to be dressed for action, and have your lamps lit’. The Lord has lit a light in our lives, the light of faith and the light of hope, and he wants us to let that light shine before others, so that they can begin to experience something of the kingdom of heaven for which we all long. The Lord needs and values our service; he needs labourers in his harvest. Yet, what the Lord wants most of all is to allow ourselves to be served by him. Are we willing to allow the Lord to serve us? Or are we keeping him out of the door of our hearts, pretending not to hear his knock? Or we cannot really hear the knock because there is a lot of commotion going on in our hearts?