HOMILY FOR 32ND TUESDAY IN ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B
HOMILY FOR 32ND TUESDAY IN ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B
HOMILY THEME: God is everything. Without Him, we have nothing, we are nothing.
BY: Fr. Mike Lagrimas
“Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished’? 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.’”
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God is the Creator; we are His creatures. God is the source of everything; we receive everything from Him. He is the vine; we are the branches. This is what the Gospel today is reminding us, lest we fall into smug complacency and a sense of entitlement.
It is true that we are God’s children. This is what the Apostle John enthusiastically declares: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are” (1Jn 3:1). And being so, we also are heirs of the heavenly kingdom (Gal 4:7). Yet, it would be a big mistake to think that we deserve all these. It is only because of God’s generosity that we have been elevated to this dignity of being His children. Rather, as the Gospel today strongly suggests, it would be more appropriate for us to consider ourselves ‘unprofitable servants’.
St. Ambrose points this out: “You cannot think yourself greater than you are simply because you are a child of God. You ought to recognize the effect of grace, yes, but you cannot forget the lowliness of your nature. Nor would I have you become vain simply because you fulfill your duty. Remember that, in like manner, the sun and the moon and the angels do exactly what they are supposed to do.”
The Gospel today gives the parable of a servant coming in from work in the field. The servant cannot expect his master to thank him for doing his job. He cannot also ask for any reward or special treatment from him for doing that which he is expected to do. At the end of the day, the most that he can say is, “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.”
Hence, to expect that God will be grateful to us for doing our duties is preposterous. Perhaps that is what some of the Pharisees thought. They felt that, because they kept the Law perfectly, God owed them salvation. But God can never be in our debt no matter how much we do for Him.
On the contrary, we ought to be grateful to Him for calling us in His service, for that means, despite our unworthiness, He has confidence in us. Being His servant is already in itself our reward and is more than enough reason to thank Him.
This is a very important lesson because many people nowadays have some distorted notions of God. One of these is to think of God in terms of employer-employee relationship. People have the idea that since they do something for God, they are entitled to receive the corresponding ‘payment’ for their service.
Still others think of God as a business partner. People give something to God and expect some kind of “ROI” or ‘Return of Investment’. Some people give tithes, expecting that God will be obliged to give them double or triple the amount they have given. What they do not realize, though, is that everything we give to God is simply giving back to Him a small portion of what He has already given us.
This is what is called “transactional spirituality”. The employer is obliged to pay his employee. The business partner is obliged to give to the investors the corresponding share of the profit. The Gospel today tells us that this kind of spirituality cannot be right. We should not expect or demand anything from God, for He has already given us everything despite our unworthiness.
God is everything. Without Him, we have nothing, we are nothing. What we are now is simply out of God’s boundless and unconditional generosity. As St. Paul declared, “He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” (Rom 8:32). Hence, St. Therese of Lisieux concludes, “Everything is grace.”
The words from Neil T. Anderson, a best-selling author, should give us something to think about: “We don’t serve God to gain His acceptance; we are accepted so we serve God. We don’t follow Him in order to be loved; we are loved so we follow Him.”
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