August 10, 2025
Luke 12: 32-48
It is clear that the message of this Gospel passage is “be prepared.” Not with anxiety or fear, for we already know that we have inherited a Kingdom and no thief or bank failure can touch this. Several examples reinforce the Lord’s point: the master who returns home late from a party and finds his servants ready to serve him; the head of the household on guard against thieves, and the faithful, farsighted servant trusted to do what he is charged with doing. Conversely, another servant, growing impatient with waiting, begins to abuse his master’s trust. Unexpectedly, Jesus gives an excuse for anyone who did not know his master’s wishes…” he will get off with less punishment.” To whom much is given, much is expected. But who of us can claim to not know the master’s wishes?
With whom do you identify in this story about preparedness? With the faithful servants, ready to open the door, busy when the Master returns at a late hour, or with the servant who abuses the trust of the Master, gets drunk and mistreats those under him, and fails to greet the Master when he arrives? Certainly, we all try to imitate the faithful servant. What have I been put in charge of? The answer is clear: love my neighbor. Have I lived up to this responsibility? Have I been a “carrier of the charism” of God’s Goodness?
Curiously, Peter, who is eventually put in charge of the Lord’s household (community) wants to know for whom this warning is meant. He clearly served faithfully until his own end, as did many others of the early community. Ezequiel’s prophecy reassures us: we will be brought into the land and filled with the Lord’s Spirit, and will live. As many of us accompany our relatives and friends in their journey to everlasting life, we reflect on our own servanthood and preparedness.
Luke 12: 32-48
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
“Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant in charge of all his property. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Meet Sister Nancy Wellmeier, SNDdeN
