Wednesday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 23, 2024

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.”

Today’s Gospel Reading continues with the Lord’s teachings about the need to prepare properly for death and for the second coming.

“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.”  We can interpret our Lord’s words in two ways: if a person striving for holiness knew when, where, and how a temptation would arise, he would make himself ready to fight it; or, if a person knew the time of the day of judgment, he would put his life in order.  “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  As the Lord points out, we do not know when we will die nor when he will come again.  This must not lure us into a state of hyper-vigilance or of complacency.  As St. Paul teaches, “The time is short. From now on those who have wives should be as if they had none; and those who mourn, as though they did not mourn; and those who rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and those who buy as if they possessed no goods; and those who use this world, as if they used it not. For the form of this world is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7, 29–31).  We should go about our lives, that is, but we should be conscious of the fact that the end is coming.

To Peter’s question as to whether he was meaning this teaching for the people in general or for the Apostles in particular, the Lord gives an answer meant for the Apostles: “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 the leaders of the Church should be “wise and prudent” stewards of the Lord’s teachings.  Those who fulfill their Master’s command will receive a high place in the heavenly kingdom: “he will put him in charge of all his property.”  But the Church leader who yields to complacency and says, in effect, “My master is delayed in coming” and abuses his authority, living a life of sin, to the point even of causing scandal, will suffer the consequences.  When the Lord Jesus comes, whether in death or at the end of the world, he “will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful”, in Gehenna.  If we insist on acting like the unfaithful, we will be treated as 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.”  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.