Ad Jesum per Mariam

What Jesus’ Parable Teaches About Faithful Devotion

What Jesus’ Parable Teaches About Faithful Devotion In Luke 17, Jesus teaches His disciples about forgiveness. When Peter asks how many times, they should forgive those who offend them, Jesus provides an answer that challenges their understanding. In response, the disciples say, “Lord, increase our faith,” recognizing that forgiveness is a deeply difficult act. Jesus then offers them a powerful illustration. He explains that even faith as small as a mustard seed can accomplish great things, such as commanding a mountain to uproot and move. To deepen their understanding, Jesus shares a parable about a servant. Faith is Revealed Through Humble Service In the parable, a servant works all day and comes home tired and hungry, only to be told by his master to prepare a meal before taking care of his own needs. From a human perspective, this may seem unfair, even harsh. But Jesus uses this example to emphasize a key lesson: faith is revealed through humble service. Genuine, pure, and sincere faith manifests in complete trust and wholehearted devotion to God. Jesus challenges His followers to adopt the attitude of total service to God, just as a servant faithfully serves their master. This relationship highlights that true faith is not just about belief but about living in full surrender and trust in God’s authority. Listen to more within this Meditation Media. Listen to: What Jesus’ Parable Teaches About Faithful Devotion ------------------------------------- Image: Parable of the Mustard Seed: Dutch Poet, Illustrator and Engraver: Jan Luyken: (lived) 1649-1712 ------------------------------------- Gospel Reading: Luke: 17: 7-10 First Reading: Ti 2:1-8, 11-14

Duration:: 8m
Broadcast on:: 19 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

"The Lord be with you," reading from the Holy Gospel, "according to look." Jesus said to His apostles, "Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field? Come here, immediately, and take your place at table. Would He not rather say to Him, 'Prepare something for me to eat.' Put on your apron, and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished." Is He grateful to that servant because He did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done or you have been commanded, say, "We are unprofitable servants. We have done what we were obliged to do." The Gospel of the Lord. In Luke chapter 17, Jesus begins to teach His disciples about forgiveness. He says, "Peter asks Him, 'How many times should we forgive those that have offended us?' And then Jesus gives them an answer to, 'How many times they have to forgive?' And their response was, 'Lord, increase our faith.' Because they recognize the forgiveness is a very hard thing to take place. So they are asking for faith to do that. And then Jesus tells them, 'A parable.' He says to them, 'Before that that is, if your faith were as little as a mustard seed, you would have commanded the mountains to be uprooted and be planted some way the trees are uprooted, planted them, and then He gives them the parable we read today.' Of whom? A servant who has worked the whole day. And then he comes back home, hungry, tired, and the Master says, 'Prepare for me something to eat.' And you will eat and drink after. If it were us who would say, 'Who do you think you are?' 'I have worked the whole day and I come back here.' You tell me. And when we look at that figure of the Master, we feel, even as we feel, He is so exacting, He really doesn't think of the other person. But Jesus wants to highlight this in the very first place. If ever we have faith, if ever we have faith as little as a mustard seed, and if our faith is genuine, is pure, is sincere, is shown by our service. So it is faith that is shown by how we save festival God. So He uses that example of what happens among them in relation between a servant and a Master to show that if you treat yourselves like this, it means that if you have faith, you completely trust in a Master, you trust in God, your attitude towards God must be of total service to God, total service to God. And at the same time, it must be this attitude that you bring into the community to be at the total service of one another without calculating, counting, you must be completely given to the service and that will demonstrate your faith. But beloved, we live in a world of entitlements. We are so entitled that when we have done a good job, it has to, at least a word of thank you, is important. And then when we do something, we are good at counting, I have done this, I have done this, it is the, I have worked like this up to this point in time, and yet when we are entitled, we cannot be grateful. If we are entitled, everything has happened because we have affected it ourselves. It's only when you completely offer yourself without counting the merits of what you have done that the consequence is gratitude because this is why Jesus at the end of the passage he says, once you have done all what you have been commanded, you say we are unprofitable servants, we have just done what we were supposed to do. Today is an invitation, the readings are a deep invitation. How do you demonstrate your faith? However small it is. However, it's significant your faith could be, we demonstrate it in how much we are of service to God and we are of service to one another. Today as we celebrate the memory of St. Josephatt gives us the opening prayer, says that he is a man who dedicated his life to the service of others, to the love of others, and Josephatt literally became a link between the western catholic church and the eastern orthodox church. Because of all his labors today we remember him because he worked in love for the works of unity, for the development of peoples. You and me in our own day we are before God and others and our faith gives us an obligation to be in the service of God and others. Let us pray for this gift.