Vigils Reading

GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT

By Karl Rahner1

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Are there not people today who, if they are true to their character as willed

by God, are a people of small means, of hard work, of only a few words, of loyalty

of heart and simple sincerity? Certainly, every Christian and every Christian

nation is charged with the entire fullness of Christian perfection as a duty that

is never completed. But every nation and every person has, so to speak, his own

door, his own approach, through which he alone can come nearer to the fullness

of Christianity. Not all of us will find access to the boundless vistas of God’s

world through the great gate of surging rapture and burning ardor. Some must

go through the small gate of quiet loyalty and the ordinary, exact performance

of duty. And it is this fact, I am inclined to think, that can help us to discover a

rapport between earth and heaven, between Christians today and their heavenly

intercessor…

[Joseph] received into his family the One who came to redeem his nation

from their sin, One to whom he himself gave the name of Jesus, a name which

means “Yahweh is Salvation.” Silent and loyal, he served the eternal Word of

the Father, the Word who had become a child of this world. And they called

their Redeemer the son of a carpenter. When the eternal Word was audible in

the world in the message of the gospels, Joseph, having quietly done his duty,

went away without any notice on the part of this world.

But the life of this insignificant man did have significance; it had one

meaning that, in the long run, counts in each one’s life: God and his incarnate

grace. To him it could be said: “Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of

your Lord.” Who can doubt that this man is a good patron for us? This man of

humble, everyday routine, this man of silent performance of duty, of honest5

righteousness and of manly piety, this man who was charged with protecting

the grace of God in its embodied life.

Christians of today might find their way back to what is best in them if the

individuality of this man, their patron, were again producing more stature in

them. Granted, a nation must have greatness of spirit and pioneers who will

lead her towards new goals. Just as much, if not more so, however, a nation

needs men and women of life-long performance of duty, of clear-headed loyalty,

of discipline of heart and body.

A nation needs those who know that true greatness is achieved only in

selfless service to the greater and holy duty that is imposed upon each life; those

of genuine reverence, conquerors of themselves, who hear the word of God and

carry out the inflexible decrees of conscience. It needs those who through their

lives bear the childlike, defenseless grace of God past all those who, like Herod,

attempt to kill this grace. A nation needs those who do not lose confidence in

God’s grace, even when they have to seek it as lost, as Joseph once sought the

divine child. Such as these are urgently needed in every situation and in every

class. We have a good patron, who is suitable for everyone. For he is a patron of

the poor, a patron of working men and women, a patron of exiles, a model for

worshipers, an exemplar of the pure discipline of the heart, a prototype of

fathers who protect in their children the Son of the Father.