Daily Reading
First Reading
TiTUS 2:1-8, 11-14
But as for you, teach what is consistent with sound doctrine. Tell the older men to be temperate, serious, prudent, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance. Likewise, tell the older women to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.
Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured; then any opponent will be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Psalm
PsALM 37:3-4, 18 and 23, 27 and 29
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
The Lord knows the days of the blameless,
and their heritage will abide forever;
Our steps are made firm by the Lord,
when he delights in our way;
Depart from evil, and do good;
so you shall abide forever.
The righteous shall inherit the land,
and live in it forever.
Gospel Reading
LUkE 17:7-10
“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’ ”
Reflection
Friends, today’s Gospel describes the obedience of a faithful servant. Our lives are not about us; they are about the King. We are built not for commanding others but for obedience. In the presence of the awesome lordliness of God—that mind and will whose grandeur we can barely fathom—we bow, we listen, we surrender.
The Lord is the King, the one who commands, directs, and oversees, and who, accordingly, demands obedience. For a military tribe such as the ancient Hebrews, this term had, to be sure, an especially powerful resonance. The proper response to a king is obedience. The king commands, and the servant responds—simply, promptly, unhesitatingly.
A courtier or a messenger might not understand the rationale for or consequences of what the king has told him to do, but he does it, trusting in the wisdom and power of the one who sends him. The word “obey” is derived from the Latin obedire, to listen attentively, to heed. In the presence of God the Lord, we his servants should listen, bending our ears and our wills to his word.