Weekday

THE RETURN OF THE MASTER

From a commentary by St Gregory the Great 3 ◊◊◊

At that time Jesus said to his disciples, “Let your loins be girded, and let your lights be lighted in your hands.” And you, be like men who wait for their master on his return from the wedding, so that when he arrives and knocks on the door, they open him immediately…”

Here two things are ordered at once: girding one’s loins and holding lamps; which means that chastity must make our bodies pure, and the truth our actions luminous. For neither purity nor light can please one without the other to our Redeemer, whether we do good without renouncing the faults of lust, or excel in chastity without exercising…good works. Without good works, chastity is therefore very little, and without chastity, good works are nothing…

It is thus immediately added: “And you, be like men who wait for their master on his return from the wedding.”… The Lord comes when he approaches to judge; he knocks on the door when he warns us of the proximity of death by the attacks of an illness. We open it immediately if we welcome it with love. We do not want to open the Judge who knocks, if we are afraid of dying and we dread to see the Judge that we remember to have despised. But he who draws his assurance in his hope and his works opens to him as soon as he knocks on the door, because he is waiting for his Judge in joy, and seeing the approach of the moment of death, the thought of the glory that will reward him the height of joy. This is why is immediately added: “Blessed are these servants whom their master, on his return,  will find vigilant!” He watches, he who keeps the eyes of his soul open to contemplate the true light; he watches, he who strives to act as he believes; he watches, he who repels the darkness of numbness and lukewarmness. It is in this sense that Paul says, “Watch, O righteous, and sin not”…

But what must the servants do if they have been negligent on the first watch?… Those who have been careless must not despair, nor give up the exercise of good works. For the Lord, declaring his extreme patience, adds: “And if he come on the second watch, and come to the third watch, and find them thus, happy are these servants!” The first watch…is the time of…childhood. The second is adolescence or youth… As for the third watch, it means old age. Thus, he who did not want to remain awake during the first watch, he observes anyway the second… And he who did not want to stay awake during the second watch, he does not let escape the remedies of the third… that he can recover at least in his old age.

Consider, dear brothers, how the goodness of God leaves no escape for our hardness of soul. Impossible for men to find excuses! God is despised, and he waits; he is scorned, and he calls again; he endures disdain, and yet he goes so far as to promise to reward those who will one day return to him…

3 St Gregory the Great. Patristic Bible Commentary. Accessed Online: https://sites.google.com/site/aquinasstudybible/home/luke-commentary/gregory-the-great-homily-13-on-thegospels.