What do we make of today’s Gospel, which is not a warm and fuzzy message? When we do a good job and when we go out of our way to do something nice for someone, we like to be shown gratitude and appreciation. Perhaps the point of this parable is that even after the servant has done his daily work, he is still the servant, and is to be ready to continue in his service to his master. We are not to just do the minimum as Christ’s servants and followers. We are not just to do what we think is required of us. We need to give of our whole selves, to be ready to serve Christ at every moment of the day. And since this is our identity and our being, it should not seem like drudgery. We are to serve Christ with joyful hearts.
Speaking of serving the Lord with a joyful hearts in difficult situations, we commemorate the feast day of Pope Leo the Great today. He was elected Pope in the year 440 at a time when the Church was battling several heresies. One of these heresies called Nestorianism held that Christ had two natures: a human nature and a divine nature. However, because of these two natures, Nestorianism claimed that Christ was two separate persons. Another heresy, Monophysitism, held that Jesus only had one nature, his divine nature, which had replaced his human nature. For the eloquent defense he wrote against these heresies and his other writings, Leo was named Doctor of the Church. Although a lot of heresies were put to rest in the Early Church, we have new heresies today, or the old ones creep up on us again in different disguises. One such heresy is Pelagianism, the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without the help of God’s divine grace working in our lives. This heresy was named about Pelagius, a monk born in England who lived in this same era. Pelagianism was condemned as a heresy at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Pope Francis and many Protestant leaders have condemned what they see as a modern-day version of Pelagianism, of so many who think that through their own efforts, they make everything right in their lives, and in a sense achieve their own salvation. Pope Francis called this a “spiritual worldliness.” Leo the Great saw our salvation and our journey through life intrinsically tied to the salvation we have in Christ: “No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.” Pope Leo the Great, we pray for your intercession and we unite our prayers to yours.
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