Readings: Wisdom 18, 6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11, 1-19; Luke 12, 32-48.
Wisdom: this book is one of the 12 special books only finally approved by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1546. Martin Luther, for instance, did not think the 12 books were genuine. Whatever the case, the 12 books are in a special section of our bible after the Old Testament.
The book we are reading from today contains traditional Jewish and Greek ideas about life, basically saying that God rewards those faithful to him & punishes you know whom.
What are You Afraid of?
When I was about sixteen, I came home from the old Jesuit High School one afternoon probably in the spring. Nobody was home, not even my sister as far as I can remember. My dad was at work. My mom was at one of her afternoon bridge clubs and had gone with one of her friends because her baby blue Pontiac was in the garage.
After hanging around a bit and getting bored, I decided I was going to go visit a friend and use my mom’s car. Mom, however, did not like me using her car, so I could not find her keys. Now in those days all of us kids knew how to run a car without keys. It was called hot wiring a car. You used tin foil on the back of the key slot under the dash.
So I hot wired my mom’s big Pontiac, pulled out of the driveway onto Stanford, and turned toward Preston Road. Arriving at the corner the car stalls. For five minutes I am working on the key slot to start the car, all to no avail, when a car coming north on Preston turns into Stanford. A lady is driving. I know that lady and sitting next to her, my mom.
The master had returned and the servant was unprepared. In fact, the servant was caught red handed.
I never got that car started and, in fact, had to pay my hard earned paper route money to get it towed and fixed. I had shorted out some wires. I don’t remember my mom ever saying anything, but I was humiliated.
I remembered this incident when I read about the master & the servant. I have some observations about these readings.
First, I don’t see our God as a thief who is trying to catch us off guard. He is not a strict master who is looking to catch us red handed and beat us.
Secondly, I don’t see us as servants. In fact, in John’s gospel Jesus says he does not call us servants, but friends. In today’s psalm it says, "Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own. We are his chosen. So is everyone.
To see this parable in a positive light, I would go back to last week when we talked about life being a gift. When it says that the Lord will come at an hour we do not expect, I propose that the gift comes at moments and in packages we do not expect. Appreciation is the goal and the process. It involves being sensitive and reflective.
One of the best lines in the whole gospel today is the very first line where Jesus says, "Do not be afraid any longer." This means I do not have to be afraid of God, afraid of death, afraid of getting caught red handed, or afraid of missing the gifts of the moment.
I’ll always remember how stupid I felt when my mom came around that corner and saw me in her car, broken down. She did not tear into me, and neither do we have a god who is a thief or master who will beat us.
So what are you afraid of?