Faith, vigilance and being prepared are just a few of the lessons we can learn from our readings this 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
When things do not make sense to us and yet we obey God speaking to us in our heart or in our conscience, that is faith. When Abraham was called by God to a place which he was not familiar with and did not know what to expect, he just obeyed and showed his faith. When he was told that his wife would conceive in spite of their old age, he asked “how can it be when both of us are past the normal age to generate and Sarah herself was sterile?” This is indeed hard to understand, but later he showed his faith and God made it possible. The letter to the Hebrews, which is our second reading this Sunday, defined faith as the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. (Hebrew 11:1) It means that even if we do not know what lies ahead of us and see what we hoped for but we show our trust in God, that is faith.
The gospel, on the other hand, talks about vigilance and being prepared. Jesus uses two parables to make this point. First, He shared the Parable of the Watchful Servants where He encourages us to be vigilant and always be ready because He comes unexpectedly into our lives everyday through events and people we meet. But the ultimate, unexpected coming of the Lord in our lives, is the moment of death. The moment where we will face God and receive judgment based on how we lived and what we have done in our life.
The second parable, the Parable of the Faithful or Unfaithful Servant, can be of help in assessing ourselves. Jesus portrays two different attitudes of disciples in the absence of the Master. The wise disciple remains steadfast at his duty post even in the master’s absence. The foolish disciple takes to a complacent lifestyle and takes the law into his own hands. The day of reckoning comes with the master’s return. The faithful servant receives a promotion while the unfaithful one is “cut to pieces” and given a place with the unbelievers.
This gives us a reflection that whatever we do, whether good or bad, has a consequence to face. If we do well and remain faithful, we know what we can get in the end and where we are heading. But if we remain complacent and never change, what can we expect in the end? The last part of the gospel is worth remembering, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more”.