Canon Luiz Ruscillo

Published 23rd February 2018 - size: 4043 × 1608 in Canticles

Canon Luiz Ruscillo ‘Benedictus: The Song of Zechariah’

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**Gospel for Sunday 7th August, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C: Luke 12:32-48**

**After the Gospel passage, you will find some thoughts from Ruth to hopefully help you reflect further. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.**

**Gospel:
**Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.
‘Sell your possessions and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks. Happy those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I tell you solemnly, he will put on an apron, sit them down at table and wait on them. It may be in the second watch he comes, or in the third, but happy those servants if he finds them ready. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what hour the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house. You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’
Peter said, ‘Lord, do you mean this parable for us, or for everyone?’ The Lord replied, ‘What sort of steward, then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment. I tell you truly, he will place him over everything he owns. But as for the servant who says to himself, “My master is taking his time coming”, and sets about beating the menservants and the maids, and eating and drinking and getting drunk, his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.
The servant who knows what his master wants, but has not even started to carry out those wishes, will receive very many strokes of the lash. The one who did not know, but deserves to be beaten for what he has done, will receive fewer strokes. When a man has had a great deal given him, a great deal will be demanded of him; when a man has had a great deal given him on trust, even more will be expected of him.

**Reflection:**

What a wonderful opening to the Gospel we hear today: There is no need to be afraid, because our Father is pleased to give us the Kingdom. Not, He will give it to us grudgingly if we happen to fulfil all the correct criterion, or He will give it as some sort of bribe to get us to behave in a certain manner, but He is pleased to give this wonderful gift to each of us because He is our Father.

How do we receive this wonderful gift? Jesus tells us to stand ready, to be like servants waiting for their master to return, eager to welcome him as soon as he knocks.

In order to really get excited by this promise, we need to understand what the Kingdom is. It is where we belong, our true home. We were created to live in the Kingdom with God. It is where we will experience complete fulfilment and recognise our deepest identities. In our second reading today, we hear all about how Abraham and Sarah were willing to leave everything and everyone they knew behind and set out not knowing where they were going. They could do this because they trusted in and looked forward to ‘a city founded, designed and built by God.’ So many times in their lives, they had to believe in promises that they couldn’t yet see, but by faith they ‘saw them in the far distance and welcomed them’. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews is using their example to help us understand that ‘only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen’.

So, as we, like the servants, are waiting for our master’s return, we need trust and hope that what He has promised us is true. The Collect at the start of Mass today reminds us that the key to inheriting the Kingdom is adoption as sons and daughters. We pray that this spirit of adoption will be brought to perfection in our hearts, that we would truly understand who we are in God’s sight and what that promise holds for us. And we must not lose focus of this in our waiting and set about trying to do things our own way like the servant who says, ‘My master is taking his time coming’. This servant, rather than recognise the privileged position gifted to him by his master, sets about gaining power and pleasure through his own means: his cruelty inciting fear and his gluttony leading to drunkenness. But what he fails to realise is that his position only makes sense in light of the master. He has no power over other individuals other than that entrusted to him by the master, he has no claim to food and drink other than that given to him by the master to share amongst the people. But he has indeed been given these things and does not need to go about proving his position or the wealth at his fingertips. In our first reading we hear ‘You made us glorious by calling us to you’. We are indeed made glorious by God – You are glorious! But that glory only makes sense in the light of the Master. Any time we lose focus on the One Whose glory we share, and attempt to make ourselves glorious, we end up bringing others down to raise ourselves up and all attempts are futile.

We must be grateful for the immensity of the gift we have been given as adopted sons and daughters and recognise the privileged position that puts us in. Otherwise, not only will we miss out on what God is offering to us, we will not take seriously our responsibility to help others receive the gift too. As Jesus says: ‘what sort of steward, then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household?’ As we explored above, the one who believes what has been promised will come true and who keeps his eyes fixed on the ‘treasure that will not fail you’.

So where is your treasure? Jesus says: ‘For where your treasure is, there will you heart be also’. Are your eyes firmly set on the promises of God, the promise of a true homeland and of adoption? Or is your heart divided by various treasures? We may think that we can juggle other interests and passions alongside our faith but Jesus is making it clear this is not possible. Every single aspect of our lives must be seen in the light of Christ and be for His glory because that is what makes us truly glorious members of the Kingdom.

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