SERVANTHOOD AND REWARD

REFLECTION FOR 27TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR, C

THEME: SERVANTHOOD AND REWARD

R1: Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4; 

R2: 2Timothy 1: 6-8, 13 - 14, 

Gospel: Luke 17: 5 - 10

It is always difficult to relate our faithful service to God and his silence when we need his immediate response to our plights. Just a few days ago, I was having a discussion with a young lady who was very bitter that God has not really been good to her. She explained how she has been very faithful to God, the effort she has put to serve God in the Church and how she has tried for many years to be a good person. She was angry that God hasn’t answered her prayers as prayed and was very bitter that even some of her friends who do not  go to Church have been living a better blessed life than her and are all married except her. She questioned, “Have  I not served God enough? Why is He treating me this way?

The experience of this young lady is the experience of many of us. We find it difficult to understand why God keeps silent many times when we need Him, even though we have tried to be His good followers. Why does he delay when we call Him, why allow us to experience misfortune?

The prophet Habakkuk in the first reading lived within the time when there was a pronounced injustice in Israel. The poor were greatly exploited by the rich. Their only hope was the Lord and when they cried to Him, all they got was that He told them to wait.

Dear friends, today’s readings call our minds to understand things according to the mind of God and will not ours. God blesses those who He loves but His blessings come at His own time. To serve God and to have an answer to our request, we must disassociate ourselves from giving God a time limit.

In the first reading, the Israelites expected God to respond to their worries as soon as possible but God told them to wait. Waiting is patience and that is faith. This is essential in our worship of God. Waiting is to allow things to happen at God’s time and in God’s timing, a thousand day is like a day (Ps 90:4).

From the gospel, when we are serving God and are performing all the responsibilities of our Christian call, we must see that simply as a duty we must perform and not a condition for God to favour us. We are mere servants who must perform the work entrusted to us (Mt 17:18).It is wrong to give God a condition; I have done this for you, now it is time for you to bless me. God is not a businessman and has not entered into any contract with anyone such that He must necessarily pay us immediately we are done with the contract. We must separate our servanthood (service to God) from the reward seeking mentality. However, whoever faithfully serves God will get a reward from Him at the proper time. The highest of the gifts is that at last we shall receive an absolute peace; the kingdom of God. 

Most times it is difficult to keep waiting for this Lord’s time. So what must we do? Like the apostles, first, we must pray to God always to increase our faith, the faith that will make us keep trusting even when it becomes difficult. Secondly, we must fan into flame the gift of God we have received when we became believers. This gift will  grant us courage when we are afraid. This we have received at confirmation and Pentecost. Faith is patience, when we possess it we shall be confident to wait for God’s fulfilment at the proper time. 

Homily by: 

Rev. Fr. Chukwuemeka VINCENT Livinus, SMMM.