Homily for Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Fr. Azam Vianney Mansha, CJM - STL

Today’s Gospel passage is known as “the passage of the unworthy servant.” Quickly reading through it might confuse us, not allowing us to grasp the real meaning of the passage because it shows that the master of the house has no concern for his servant or it seems that the master is hard on his servant. A careful reading of the passage and a reflection on the characters of the servant and his master will lead us to a different perspective and a different title for the Gospel passage.

Let’s look at the character of the servant together. He is hard-working and multi-talented as seen by the way he worked in the farm and upon returning to his master’s house, he also cooked and was willing to serve his master while the master enjoyed his meal. Indeed, we can call today’s Gospel passage “the Passage of the Dutiful Servant.” For all his service, he just said, “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.” Before we go deeper into the character of the servant, let’s see the character of the master first.

The master owns the farm and the house. Beyond that, we know that he empowers and entrusts all his property to his servant. In other words, he depends on the servant to do many things because he knows his servant has the qualities of being hard-working and multi-talented. Above all, the master empowers and entrusts all that he owns to his servant because the servant is humble and it is through his humility that the servant wins the heart of his master.

Often, our modern society sees humility as weakness, but a man of God, St. John Eudes, tells us that “humility” is the mother of all virtues. This means that “humility” is the foundation of all virtues, which are mercy, meekness, generosity, chastity, temperance, diligence and patience. When we are humble, we bend ourselves to serve others, not with pain, but with great joy.

Indeed, humility brings joy, trust and generosity to our selfish society which does not want to share, but rather, to collect and control. As an example of “humility,” let’s take a look at the mango tree. When a mango tree has fruits, it bends so that people can enjoy its fruits. Just like a mango tree, when we humble ourselves, we bend ourselves to serve others.

There are moments in our lives when we say YES to many things, such as being in the lector ministry; organizing fund-raising projects, soup kitchens, food banks, quinceañera, etc. In addition to these volunteer services in the church, we have our personal life and family life as well. While doing all that, we sometimes feel like we can’t go on anymore. It feels like we’ve hit the bottom of the barrel and we want to quit or want to say NO to certain upcoming events or activities. No doubt, we need to take care of our health, family life and other things, but at the same time, we must not forget our Master, Jesus, will continue to empower us with the Holy Spirit. He entrusts His mission to us because...

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which He looks, Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are His body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours (St. Teresa of Ávila-attributed)

Dear sisters and brothers, if we feel overburdened with too much service in the church or serving our poor brothers and sisters, if we get tired and exhausted with our works of mercy, let us not forget that the Divine Master, our Lord Jesus, empowers us and entrusts the mission to us because we are His hands, His feet, His eyes, and His body. It is our act of humility before Jesus that actually opens our hearts to experience Divine Providence because “to be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but the greatness of its humility” (St. John of the Cross). In addition, humility is a fuel which leads us towards heaven because “it was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men [& women] as angels (St. Augustine of Hippo).

May Mary, the mother of Jesus and our mother, intercede for us to be more humble in order to become the hands, the feet, the eyes and the body of our Divine Master, Jesus Christ.