Gospel Reading: Mt 24:42-51
JESUS said to his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. 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. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. 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.”
Reflections: Faithful and prudent…wicked servant
In former times, when haciendas or vast tracts of land were owned by wealthy families, the day-to-day running of the property was entrusted to a head servant. He is called mayordomo, literally, “head of the house.” As in the Gospel, this servant is put by the master in charge of his property and of his household. He has authority over the male and female servants. He is expected to take good care of all his charges. But the head servant may abuse his authority in his master’s absence, beating his fellow servants and eating and drinking with drunkards. Informed of his abuses, the master will come at an unexpected hour and severely punish this wicked head servant.
The parable teaches that the Lord entrusts us with great responsibility for which we will someday have to give an account. The things or persons given to us are not our own possessions to do whatever we want with them; they belong to the Lord, and we are simply the Lord’s stewards or administrators. On the way we exercise this responsibility depends either our reward or our punishment.
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Over whom or what have you been entrusted with responsibility? Have you been a faithful and prudent “head servant”?
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord,” ST PAULS,” 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
