A quick word

The Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Advent this year was Mark 13:33-37. When I heard it proclaimed at Mass, what stood out for me was this:

It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work....

"Each with his own work." Each servant is in charge of something, each is given a task. There are no extraneous servants, no generic servants. They each have a specific role and a specific purpose. And indeed, what sort of a household would the man be running if there were servants who didn't have any particular work to do?

As servants of Christ each with our own work, we have both responsibility and dignity. "Servant" -- which in the parables, I've heard, is a polite way of saying "slave" -- and "dignity" aren't words that often go together, but if you have a job to do on God's authority, then you may claim what you need to do the job on the same authority, and no one but God may take it from you.

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