Wednesday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 20, 2021

Luke 12:39-48

Jesus said to his disciples: “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, he will put him 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 Lord Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was approaching and so it was necessary for all who hoped to enter it to repent.  The Gospels tell us that this was the primary message of his preaching.  All that they report him as saying is related to this theme.  Even when he teaches about himself, it is for the purpose of validating his teaching about the kingdom.  His teaching on the coming of the kingdom intensified as he drew nearer to Jerusalem on his last tourney there, and especially after he entered it.  His very dying on the Cross makes it possible for us to be washed from the sins of which we have repented so as to be saved in it.

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, we hear the Lord speaking earnestly about his return for judgment.  He does this out of his own ferocious love for the people of this world, not out of a desire to terrify them or to set them up for failure.  He appeals to his hearers using familiar terms: “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.”  He denigrates himself in this verse, comparing himself to a thief.  (Indeed, he was crucified in the midst of two thieves as though he were their chief).  The Lord is saying here that if the owner of the house knew the exact hour for the break-in, he would be ready; how much more he should be ready at all times if he knew of the break-in beforehand but did not know the exact hour.  “At an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  The Lord implies here that the reason the time of his coming for judgment was withheld was so that the faithful might be “prepared” for him at all “hours” of their lives — refraining from sin and performing good works.  “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”  Peter asks an odd question.  He seems to think that the Lord Jesus would reveal the time of his coming to his Apostles, who would be needed for the establishment of the kingdom at that time, to his earthly way of thinking.  Jesus provides an answer in the form of a parable: “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?”  The Apostles (and their successors) are to be the stewards.  They, as “faithful” and “prudent”, are to distribute the food ration at the “proper time” to the ordinary servants, the faithful: that is, to offer the Mass for them, to administer the sacraments to them, to preach to them — to provide for their spiritual nourishment.  They are to do these things at “the proper time”, regularly, throughout the days and the years.  They are not to lie around until the Master comes back and then suddenly spring into action.  If a steward plans to do this, his 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.”  He is sent to the unfaithful because he has acted unfaithfully.  To the steward who is vigilant and feeds the servants as he is charged to do, the Master “will put him in charge of all his property.”  That is, he will reign with the Master.

“That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely.”  The Lord makes a distinction between the servant who knew his Master’s will and the one who did not.  In the first case we have the leaders of our religion who have studied the Gospels and the Lord’s law so that they know his will for those who are called to be “stewards”.  In the second case, we have everyone else, the bulk of the faithful, who depend on the stewards to feed them so that they might know the Master’s will for them and have the strength to carry it out.  If the stewards do not perform their duty as they know they are supposed to do, they “shall be beaten severely”.  But those whose knowledge is lesser and “acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly”.  Their ignorance does not save them entirely because they act against their consciences in their actions, performing deeds which they did not need special instruction to know they were sinful.  These punishments could refer to those administered either in purgatory or in hell, depending upon whether they committed their sins with malice or simply through weakness.

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”  The stewards — popes, bishops, priests, teachers — are entrusted with authority and the responsibility to lead the faithful to heaven.  The higher in office the steward is, the greater the graces given for carrying out these tasks, and so the greater the punishment for failing in them.  In this way, the Lord answers Peter’s question.  

Much is given to us all for living holy lives.  Let us never fail to sanctify ourselves through reception of the Sacraments and charitable works.