27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
2 Tm 1:6-8, 13-14
Lk 17:5-10

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman with the Sunday Soundbite for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I have a number of friends who work as waiters and waitresses, and serve in other positions in the restaurant business. I enjoy talking with them about their work, and hearing the stories they tell about the sometimes insensitive behavior of restaurant patrons. It's made me appreciate the hard work done by those who wait on tables. I've tried to remember that when I say thanks and leave tips.

In today's Gospel, Jesus draws on the experience of those who provided service in his day. He speaks of servants who are just "doing their duty" for a master. They can't expect some special treatment for doing what's expected of them. In his book, The Word Alive, the late Scripture scholar, Father Eugene Maly, has a wonderful insight about this passage. Father Gene calls the parable "provocative." We know that serving Jesus is something truly extraordinary—so how can it be mere duty? "The answer," Father Gene says, "is faith. When one makes that total surrender to the Lord," he says, "then all else follows 'naturally.' The extraordinary becomes ordinary. The unexpected becomes completely expected."

Through giving ourselves to the Lord, we can find ourselves doing great things with the Spirit's help. Look at your own life today and see if you agree!

Scripture:

•For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint… (Habakkuk 2:3)

•Oh that today you would hear his voice: “Harden not your hearts…” (Psalm 95)

•I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have… (2 Timothy 1:8)

•And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.“ (Luke 17:5)

•…When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.‘” Luke 17:10)

Reflection:

•What is the difference between peace and justice?

•What is the difference between expected and overwhelmed?

•What is the difference between earned and given?

•What is the difference between obligated and freed?

•What is the difference between grasped and released?

•What words describe faith and the spiritual life?

•What words would you use to describe faith?

We must allow Christ to pervade our souls to the extent that he becomes all in all; we must, according to St. Paul’s beautiful expression, “put on” Christ (Romans 13:14), trying to be what he was, such that we truly become his disciples. The whole of Christian life is this progressive evangelization of our being, this shedding of the flesh, selfish and closed up within ourselves, this opening up to Christ’s teachings that we must follow. …The Christian life consists in allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us gradually into Christ. The unique end of every person is to become another Christ … This is not a matter of choice but the sole purpose of existence. (Jean Cardinal Danielou)