“WE ARE NO MORE THAN SERVANTS: WE HAVE ONLY DONE OUR DUTY.”

If I accomplish good things and deeds, I cannot boast of them before God and claim my reward.

I simply did what I was expected to do.

I do good works not to get paid, but for the Father who created me to get praised.　

   

St. Josaphat, bishop & martyr

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

 Titus 2:1-8, 11-14

Let your words

Strengthen sound doctrine. Tell the older men to be sober, serious, wise, sound in faith, love and perseverance. The older women, in like manner, must behave as befits holy women, not given to gossiping or drinking wine, but as good counselors, able to teach younger women to love their husbands and children, to be judicious and chaste, to take care of their households, to be kind, and submissive to their husbands, lest our faith be attacked. 

 

Encourage the young men to be self-controlled. Set them an example by your own way of doing. Let your teaching be earnest and sincere, and your preaching, beyond reproach. Then, your opponents will feel ashamed and will have nothing to criticize.

 

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, teaching us to reject an irreligious way of life, and worldly greed, and to live in this world, as responsible persons, upright and serving God, while we await our blessed hope - the glorious manifestation of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. He gave himself for us, to redeem us from every evil, and to purify a people he wanted to be his own, and dedicated to what is good.

 

Ps 37:3-4, 18, 23, 27, 29 The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

Luke 17:7-10

Who among you would say to your servant, coming in from the fields after plowing or tending sheep, 'Go ahead and have your dinner'? No, you tell him, 'Prepare my dinner. Put on your apron, and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink afterward. Do you thank this servant for doing what you told him to do? I don't think so. And therefore, when you have done all that you have been told to do, you should say, 'We are no more than servants; we have only done our duty."

 

Gospel Reflection ：

Reflection:

"True service."

Jesus came not to be served but to serve (cf. Mk 10:45; Mt 20:28). When Jesus came to serve others, giving his life for the redemption of all, he dignified service. Nobody wanted to serve because service was always associated with undignified servitude. The servant was always in a disadvantageous position.

 

This disadvantageous position is better shown by today's Gospel passage. Jesus taught his disciples a lesson on the duty of a servant. The servant, after doing all his works, is never expected to receive words of gratitude from his master because he is only doing his obligation and duty as a servant. We may reflect on the fact that Jesus is our master but he is also the one who came to serve.

 

With Jesus coming into the world, servanthood has ceased to be a sheer obligation. Service for others remains to be a duty, but it has become a sacred duty. Moreover, servanthood has ceased to be controlled by external authority. It has become something that springs up from one's inner self and out of one's innate goodness. True service is something that flows from within, similar to what it really was in the beginning when God's goodness emanates and overflows.