Gospel: Luke 17: 7-10
Consider the irony of today's question from Jesus: do we expect a servant to come in from the fields and sit at time to dine and be served by his master? In the human realm this is unthinkable, but here is the irony: this is exactly what happens in a relationship with Jesus. He does this for us as he did so for his original disciples. He prepares a Passover meal for them, then goes about washing everyone's feet, much to the shock of everyone at table.
Now, after being fed and washed, Jesus tells us that we must do as he has done for them. The entire notion of being a servant is flipped on its head. In the human world it is subjugation and being humiliated by another person, class, and race of people. In the divine realm service is transformed into a life of providing dignity to other people. For now it is our task to prepare a table for others so that we might see that all others are fed and washed.
This commission has both a very ordinary application - literally feed and wash others! - and it has a sacramental application as well. But the sacramental is a symbol of and a preparation for us all to feed and wash others in the ordinary of our day, to show mercy to others and provide for the basic needs of all human beings no matter who they are. No one is to be excluded.
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