Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the Word of God in the Scriptures speak to us the need to be ever vigilant, day and night, from time to time, that we will not be caught unaware and unprepared, should the Lord come again in His own time, as He had promised. This we heard ourselves from the parable which Jesus our Lord spoke to the people, the parable of the faithful and the bad servants.

In that parable, Jesus spoke first of a faithful and devoted servant to whom his master entrusted his household, his servants and his entire properties while he was away from his residence, essentially becoming his steward and the caretaker of his many possessions. And the faithful servant did all that his master had ordered him to do, fulfilling all that was required of him, and when his master came back, the servant was richly rewarded.

And then, we also heard about another servant, who was also entrusted with the possessions and the household of his master when he was away. Yet this servant was different from the previous one, as this servant was lazy, and he misused the authority given to him by his master, abusing the other servants and by shirking his duties and abandoning his responsibilities, thinking that he could get away with all that, as his master was away.

The reality only came to strike at that lazy servant when the master suddenly came back without warning and found the lazy servant to be idling at his work and even abusing the servants. The servant was punished and earned what he deserved, and all these are reminders for us all that these things will come to us as well if we are not vigilant in how we live our lives daily.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that each one of us have been entrusted by God with this life we have, just as the master of the house entrusted his properties and household to the servants. And how well we do in this life, we will then be judged by the Lord, Who is our Lord and Master. He will know of what we have done in our lives, as well as what we have not done.

Now, the question is that, who is it that we want to be, brothers and sisters in Christ? Do we want to be like the faithful servant, whom the master found to be faithful and good in his work, even though those labours and works might be hard, and yet, provided him with bountiful returns and rewards? Or would we rather be like the lazy servant, who had done nothing and wasted his time?

That brings us then to the need to question ourselves, what have done as a Christian and as a member of the Church of God? We cannot be lukewarm in our faith, and that means, we cannot be ignorant of what we need to do, that is to love God with all of our heart, with all of our mind and our strength, indeed, with our whole being. And that means for us to spend time with Him and to be true to our faith to Him in all the things we say and do.

We may think that it is something that is easy to be done, but in reality, it can be quite difficult. There are plenty of temptations and pressures around us tempting us to do otherwise. And we must also not forget that as Christians, we are also called to love our fellow brethren just as much as we love ourselves and just as how we loved God. Are we ready and able to give our love to our brethren, unconditionally and generously?

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on these questions and indeed think through of what each and every one of us are able to do in order to be good servants of God, walking faithfully in His ways, that in the end, when God comes again, and when it is time for us to render our accounts of our own lives, we will be able to receive worthily the graces and blessings which God had promised all of us.

May the Lord be with all of us, and may He bless us at all times, that He will always guide us on this journey of faith, that we may draw ever closer to Him with each passing day. Amen.