Gospel (Lk 12:35-38)
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!”
Commentary
Today's gospel presents us with the first of several parables in which our Lord exhorts us to be vigilant. It shows us servants who are waiting expectantly for their master to arrive home from his wedding. Being girded indicates having their clothes adjusted and being ready to serve. The lit lamps allude to the wedding procession that will arrive late at night.
With this parable, Christ teaches us that a Christian’s fundamental attitude should be vigilance.
This is what the priestly soul of every Christian requires: to spiritually nourish the people of God, to keep the world open to God. Every Christian is a guardian who watches over his brothers and sisters, being vigilant, praying, safe-guarding.
Like Christ was in the garden of olives, every Christian needs to be vigilant for the needs of mankind, and not give in to drowsiness and carelessness.
And when a Christian lives like this, then what Jesus recounts in the parable happens: the master girds himself like a servant, has the servant sit at his table and begins to serve him. And then the great transformation happens: the servant becomes an intimate friend.
This is Christ’s greatest desire, to attain a communion of life with each Christian. The relationship God wants to have with us is not a relationship of a devoted subject with his king or of faithful servants with their master. He wants to have an intimate, loving relationship with us. It is He who wants to be close to us, who seeks us out, who invites us to his feast and serves us.
Poor, simple, without merit, without talents: we are the beloved, the favorites of God.
And to enter into this feast, a Christian must take charge of what Christ carries in his heart: each and every person in this world.