Reading of the Holy Gospel according to Luke 17, 5-10
Dear Friends,
This short passage in today’s Gospel is part of a longer section. Here Jesus is continuing to teach the disciples what it meant of be his follower. Immediately, before today’s selection, Jesus presented the challenging news about forgiveness. For those listening in Jesus’ presence, down to us today, it is a truly challenging task to forgive seven times a day. “If he wrongs you seven times in one day, and returns to you seven times to say I ‘I am sorry’, you should forgive him”. (Lk 17:4) This lesson is why they asked the Lord to increase their faith.
The phrase about the mulberry tree flying off to the sea is just another example of the strong language that Jesus used to stress a point. What he is saying to the disciples and to us, is that the little faith we have is sufficient if we only trust it and express our confidence in God. Faith allows us to share in the power of God. The impossible becomes possible to the person of faith.
We should not be put off by the language about the servants. This was an example from the everyday reality of Jesus’ listeners. Jesus is not accepting nor rejecting it. He is using it to convey a message that his listeners would understand. The real issue is not how the owner treats the servant but how the servant understands his role. It should help us understand the basic reality that defines us. God is God and we are the creature. We must fight the constant temptation to make ourselves god and God our servant.
Jesus is using the parable to teach about discipleship. Community leaders need to see their role as servants. Jesus is contrasting this understanding with the constant practice of the Scribes and Pharisees. They saw themselves in a position of privilege and expected special recognition and esteem at all times. On the other hand, the disciple of Christ should seek to lead by example and service even to the point of washing the feet of the community members.
Accepting ourselves as creature and God as Creator means among other things, that we can never put God in our debt. We can never have any claim on God. When we have done our best, we only have done our duty. We are not living in the realm of law with its exactitude in measuring our responsibilities. Jesus has called us into the realm of love where the boundaries of our giving are always expanding to new horizons.
St. Teresa of Avila understood her role as creature and servant with profound accuracy. All her teachings and wisdom flowed from her appreciation of this humble condition. She recognized, with ever-growing clarity and insight, that God is God and she is the creature. In spite of embracing her humble circumstances, she accepted God as a loving and merciful savior, and herself as a humble and sinful servant both loved and forgiven. She understood her life, in its deepest truth, as the story of God’s mercy. It is the same for all of us.
