Sunday Gospel, 27th Ordinary Time, Year of Luke

Lectio: Luke 17:5-10 – ” … Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'”

Meditatio: Not a very nice picture of God, “the ungrateful master”, here. And yet, is not God also depicted elsewhere (Luke 12) as follows: ^“37Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.” A complete contradiction, but what point was Jesus trying to make on each occasion, and how receptive were His audience, what images could He use?

I think 12:37 gives the truer image of God – God is good, God is humble, God is grateful. After all, God commands us to be all of these things, so that we may be perfect, just as He is perfect. We cannot imagine (we really, really cannot even begin to imagine) just how good this God is, Who commands us to love Him with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength, because obviously, He first loves us with ALL OF HIS BEING. Now this true image of God, and information about this can often be like “pearls in front of pigs”, because we truly are calculating pigs at times – when we hear how good God is, we begin to calculate just how much sin we can get away with and still get into heaven. The more merciful God may be, we reckon the more we can relax here and rely on Him to forgive us.

But as I think I’ve said before, original sin really did do a bad job on us and has totally corrupted our outlook on everything. God was never going to judge us anyway! God IS, He always IS, nothing we do can really hurt Him. But the things we do will not be good enough FOR US. When people die and see God, the thing they want is a thousand more lifetimes so that they can give them all up totally in His service, and they regret, really regret, the pathetic miserly offerings they gave Him with the one life they had. They face Him and say, “I was just an unprofitable servant …”, as they see the grandeur of God’s love for them. In fact, the greater God’s love and mercy actually are, the greater this feeling of regret – and in fact God’s love and mercy are infinite. It’s kind of ironic that the one thing we all rely on to “get us off the hook” is actually the very thing that is going to afflict us! Saint Isaac of Syria said that the fire of God’s love and the fire of hell ARE THE SAME THING:

“As for me I say that those who are tormented in hell are tormented by the invasion of love. What is there more bitter and violent than the pains of love? Those who feel they have sinned against love bear in themselves a damnation much heavier than the most dreaded punishments. The suffering with which sinning against love afflicts the heart is more keenly felt than any other torment. It is absurd to assume that the sinners in hell are deprived of God’s love. Love is offered impartially. But by its very power it acts in two ways. It torments sinners, as happens here on earth when we are tormented by the presence of a friend to whom we have been unfaithful. And it gives joy to those who have been faithful.” See “Words from St. Isaac of Syria” By fatherstephen.

This is a very hard thing to understand, and so God allows images of Himself to be used as a thunderbolt throwing judge to allow us get the message more easily, i.e. we have to work hard to get to heaven. The image of the angry judge is good for beginners who cannot conceive how great (and terrifying) infinite love might be. Personally, I think I’m only getting to grips with it on a purely intellectual level – my “feeling” side is still quite unruffled by it and still continues to be swayed violently by the “delights” that this earth offers 😦

So back to the original quote: we will finish our work and expect rest, but the master won’t let us. In fact, we won’t want to rest. We will probably beg to be sent to purgatory so that we can at least offer something of ourselves PURELY for God.

Oratio: Dear Jesus, Saint Augustine said, “Too late have I loved You”. I can say the same: too late, too little and still I hold back – too early and too much have I loved and continue to love and serve myself. Please help me to make the decision, to maintain the resolve, to fight against my self-love and to offer all the struggle to You. Dear Mary, please pray for me.