Weekend Reflections for 10/4/19

Who’s in charge here?
In St. Luke’s gospel Jesus teaches us about Servants and Masters in two parables. In Sunday’s gospel “ (Chapter 17: 7-10) he encourages our work ethic for the kingdom of God. The master demands that we servants do what servants are required to do: serve. But In Chapter 12: he says “blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.”

I think most of us may be overly preoccupied with the work ethic in our daily lives, the lives many of us regularly return to, or maybe have already returned  through the daily grind of e-mail, advance planning, etc. Hopefully our times of “retreat” at White House have allowed us to step back a bit and put our work in perspective.

But in the second passage, there’s a surprise in store: Think about it: the master puts on his apron and waits on the servants at table. Now I’m not suggesting that we invite those serving us at table to sit down and we get up and serve them. But the message Jesus presents is that service is our gospel mandate, discipleship invites us to be of service in our world, and God puts on an apron and works at our side when we do this. May your White House retreat always call you to deeper service in the mission field.

-Fr. Ted Arroyo, SJ