32nd Week in Ordinary Time
Leo the Great

1st Reading: Wis 2:23—3:9

Gospel: Lk 17:7–10
Jesus said to his disciples, “Who among you would say to your servant coming in from the fields after plowing or tending sheep: ‘Come at once and sit down at table’? No, you tell him: ‘Prepare my dinner. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink; you can eat and drink afterwards.’ Do you thank this servant for doing what you commanded? So for you. When you have done all that you have been told to do, you must say: ‘We are no more than servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Commentary
We need, today, to learn another lesson: that Christ calls us to be servants of one another, and that this service will be a most blessed one, a new and fuller liberty from sin and self. At first it may appear hard. But, if once we learn that to be nothing before God is the glory of the creature, the spirit of Jesus, the joy of heaven, we shall welcome with our whole heart the discipline we may have in serving even those who trouble us.

This was what Jesus said to the disciples who were thinking of being great in the kingdom, and of sitting on His right hand and His left. Seek not, ask not for exaltation; that is God’s work. Jesus means this, we all know. Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds the creature abased and empty, in flows His glory and power. It is godlike, however, to humble ourselves, to become servants of all! Let us study the words we’ve been given, until our hearts are filled with the one thought: my real need is humility. Here is the path to the higher life: down, lower down!

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