Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, bishop
(Wisdom 2:23-3:9; Luke 17:7-10)
Today’s gospel sounds counterintuitive. How are we going to
maintain a positive self-image while we claim to be “unworthy servants”? The resolution lies in considering whom we
serve.
In speaking to his apostles, our Lord sees the master-servant
relationship applying to God and His people.
We serve God by our worship and our treating others with the appropriate
love. However, our capacious pride prevents
us from fulfilling these duties.
Therefore, recognizing our limitations, we should be modest about thinking
how good we are. As Jesus says, in
regard to God we are “unworthy servants.”
Yet we are His servants, created in His image with intelligence
and freedom. Even more enhancing, we have
been recreated with divine grace. We like
today’s patron, St. Martin of Tours, can do what pleases our Master. St. Martin, today’s patron left us a legacy of
how we might do this. He exemplified for
us evangelical love for the poor, peaceful nonviolence, and fatherly solicitude
for those in our care.
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