Reading
Luke 17:7-10
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Comment
The message of this Gospel page is that no one should make any claims whatsoever, because the service rendered to God is a duty to be performed in itself, not in view of a final reward, which in any case will not be lacking.
However good we may do, God will never be our debtor, because what he gives us is free and infinitely superior to the good accomplished: "No one can redeem himself, or give God his price. one life will never be enough to live without end and not see the tomb" (Ps 49:8-10).
Least of all there are "supererogatory" works, merits obtained by us beyond what was required of us, merits in excess to apply to those we desire. Jesus is clear: we are useless servants (v. 10). Everything is grace, which comes from the hands of God.
If God has no debt to us, he feels indebted to his own honor in keeping his promise of salvation. We are saved not because we are faithful, but because God is faithful. And if our good works are not profitable before God, those certainly are before men, that await our help, our comfort, our compassion: ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Mt 25:40).
Prayer
Deliver us, o Lord, from mercenary love and the presumption of being your creditors. Teach us to respond with love to the gratuitousness of your love. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
