“When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’”
The Gospel reading for Tuesday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time comes from Luke 17:7–10. This passage is usually applied to Jesus being the master and his disciples being the servants. Makes sense.
His followers are to nurture humility and not think of themselves as masters ruling the rest of the world and expect the rest of the world to orient their lives accordingly.
We’ve see how well that’s worked over the centuries. Maybe there’s another way to understand this teaching.
Jesus made shocking statements about his personal identity. He taught his disciples a parable about how he would reveal his true identity at the Last Judgment. “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
The parable predicts the disciples would be shocked and wouldn’t remember when it would have happened.
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”
He said he is the person who is poor, hungry, thirsty, widowed, orphaned, sick, disabled, and in (debtor’s) prison. Not that he is like them or that we should think about him when doing works of mercy. No. He is them. He literally is that person who is ill, hurt, poverty stricken, widowed, orphaned, in jail, unhoused, hungry, and lonely.
This is the essence of transubstantiation.
Back to Luke 17. Jesus teaches his apostles to serve him; and only afterward to attend to their needs. And even then, the disciples are to say that they are unprofitable servants.
This challenges all who are in power and with resources to serve and prioritize serving Jesus by serving those who have been marginalized.
It’s true for the collective Church. Christianity has a history of serving itself, and you can probably think of more ways than I can. So this is a call for Christianity to set its priorities in a way that serves Christ by serving those who have needs. One way is to divest itself of clericalism. Pope Francis has demonstrated time and again how clericalism is antithetical to the Gospel.
The challenge is true for daily Christian practice. It might mean giving time and money to charitable organizations, visiting retirement homes, giving money to people asking for it at the stoplight, or helping a disabled neighbor shovel snow. Again, you can think of more ways than I can.
For the Church and Christians, setting the table for Christ first means more than limiting themselves to individual works of mercy. By working for the creation of just social structures, we are truly setting the table for others before sitting down ourselves. St. Pope Paul VI wrote, “If you want peace, work for justice.” Brazilian Archbishop Dom Hélder Câmara famously observed, “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint, but when I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist.”
Jesus is not sending anyone on a guilt trip, and he’s not ordering people who are already marginalized to do what they cannot.
He recognizes the work never ends in this world. Poverty, he reminded his disciples, will always be with us. There’s always more to do, always more ways we can serve him in the poor, weak, lonely, in debt, and in prison.
Maybe that’s why Jesus tells us that after we do what we can that we are to say, “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.” It’s not an excuse to do nothing, but an encouragement to find new and creative ways to do even more.
Reflection:
1. How have I set the table for myself first before setting it for Christ.
2. What would it look like for me to set the table for Christ first?
3. What would it look like for the Church to set the table for Christ first?
