Wicked Servants

Jesus said to his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. 

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his  master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  (Matthew 24:42-51)

Are we asleep?  Has our house been broken into meaning we have forgotten to apply our Catholic teaching to our lives thereby guiding us to chose leaders who will guard our house.   Let’s consider President Truman’s remarks about Abraham Lincoln quoted in Jon Meacham’s book “The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels.”  He said:

“He [Lincoln] was a president who understood people, and when it came time to make decisions, he was willing to take the responsibility and make those decisions no mater how difficult they were.  He had a good head and a great brain and a kind heart…He was the best kind of ordinary man, and when I say that he was an ordinary man, I mean that as high praise, not deprecation.  That’s the highest praise you can give a man, that he’s one of the people and becomes distinguished in the service that he gives other people.  I don’t know of any higher compliment you can pay a man than that.”

Wicked servants think the master – in this case, God – is long delayed so wailing and grinding of teeth and being assigned to a place with hypocrites is a distant possibility, but not guaranteed.  Not so.   That unexpected day of arrival with wailing and grinding is soon anticipated by faithful and prudent servants – those who will hold the thieves accountable.

Deacon David Pierce