The attitude of a servant

Our Sunday Gospel reading today is about our faith. Few people and I mean Catholics know that faith is a gift from God, without which we cannot have a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. In today's teaching, our Lord gives us an idea of the attitude of a Servant. You can read this scripture story in Luke 17:5-10.

"5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." 6 The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to [this] mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. 7 Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending the sheep in the field, 'Come here immediately and take your place at table?

8 Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished'? 9 Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do."

*  *  *

I have encountered numerous treatises on faith matters from many biblical scholars or Saints who are doctors of the Church…like St. Therese of Avila and St. Therese de Lisieux and I have one way or the other mentioned their writings in our Sunday articles. But two weeks ago, I took joined a three-day retreat in Tagaytay with the members of Opus Dei, so allow me to share an article written by Martin Mazloom from Monterey Park, California entitled "Attitude of Gratitude: St. Josemaria Escriva's Recipe for Sanctity" which he wrote on the Nov/December 2002 issue of Lay Witness Magazine as it is perfectly matched to today's Gospel on the Attitude of a Servant.

As Martin Mazloom wrote, "Josemaria Escriva's never forgot that he was just a simple, ordinary priest. Indeed, he often referred to himself as "a deaf and clumsy instrument" or as God's donkey." But more importantly, he never forgot that he was a child of God, and upon this foundation of divine filiation-the awareness that we are sons and daughters of God the Father-St. Josemaria built his lifelong spirit of thanksgiving."

The people who know what is really the heart of Opus Dei would immediately tell you that it is divine filiation. This is not an invention of St. Escriva; rather he practiced it throughout his entire life. You may ask…why am I using Opus Dei for this article? Well, honestly, my favorite Catholic writer is the Protestant-turned-Catholic author Scott Hahn and I bought at least five of his books and one of them was entitled "Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace: My spiritual journey in Opus Dei".

In that book Scott Hahn wrote, "God is our Father. We are His children in Christ Jesus, the eternal Son; thus, gathered together around his table, the Church is the family of God on earth, as the Trinity is the Family of God in heaven." Thus…if God bestowed upon ourselves the Gift of Faith, we should be eternally grateful to God for without having been given our faith…we could never hope to enter into his kingdom. This fact alone should make us realize that we owe a huge debt of gratitude for being blessed by the love of God. This is why we must in turn learn to Love God with all our strength, our souls, our heart and our minds and our neighbor as ourselves.

Back to what Martin Mazloom write, "The theme of thanksgiving is inextricably woven into St. Josemaria's life and books. In his collection of spiritual meditations The Way, he emphasizes the Christian's duty to constantly thank Our Father: Make it a habit to raise your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day. Because he gives you this and that…because someone has despised you…because you don't have what you need or because you do have it. And because He made His Mother, who is also your Mother, so beautiful."

Mazloom added, "St. Josemaria encouraged souls to be especially thankful for the Holy Eucharist. He spent 10 minutes of thanksgiving every day after Mass thanking God for the Communion he had received. In his collection of homilies Christ is Passing By, he exhorts, "If we love Christ, who offers Himself for us, we will feel compelled to find a few minutes after Mass for an intimate personal thanksgiving, which will prolong in the silence of our hearts that other thanksgiving which is the Eucharist."

During our retreat, Dr. Jess Estanislao and Fr. Garry Soria made us pray the Rosary and the Way of the Cross as a reminder of the suffering of Christ that this God did not come to be served but to serve. This is true Humility and the only way to achieve it is to follow the advice of St. John the Baptist when he met Christ…"That He may increase and I decrease." When that happens, then Christ can live in you.

*  *  *

Email: [email protected]