Gospel: Luke 12: 39-48
The task of the servant is a simple one in this story: to distribute food to all in the household of the Master. It is to feed and nourish those assigned to us by the master. And those who belong to his household is the entire human race, every single human being. The master's household is not some segregated elite clique. It is everybody, and it is our task as servants of the Lord to nourish them all without distinction.
The minute we begin to create categories of who belongs and who does not we become like the abusive servants in today's parable. We regard some servants as unworthy. We show favoritism. We create different rules of ethics to express our biases. The household then becomes a place of abuse and division. It is no longer the place of welcome and safety intended by the master who created it, and those abused within its walls seek safety and welcome elsewhere.
The task of the servant is exactly the work Jesus undertook in his own life. We went about healing, liberating, and feeding people without distinction, without discrimination. All were healed, all were liberated, all were fed. He set not categories of worthiness. He openly rejected the human creations of the clean and the unclean, the foreigner and citizen, the chosen and the unchosen. Jesus chose all because God created all. It is our task as servants to follow the example of the Lord.
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