Service is Required; Reward is Optional

This is my homily for Sunday October 6, 2013.  I am a Catholic chaplain at  Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU, Teaneck),   FDU Newman Catholic Association,  New Jersey City University (NJCU) in Jersey City.  At FDU, Sunday Evening Mass is celebrated 5:00 pm during Fall 2013 and Spring 2014. at FDU Chapel, 842 River Road, Teaneck. 

27^th Sunday, Year C

•• Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4 •• Psalm 95

•• 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 •• Luke 17:5-10

[__01__] Service is evitable, the reward is optional.   Don’t we have some experience of this in a situation in which we have been EITHER the customer being served…or the worker carrying the plates from the kitchen.

Excellent service – going above and beyond what is required – will be “profitable” .. will be “productive” ..and gain a 4-star review in Zagat’s / The Record / The Times.

Service is inevitable in a restaurant or hotel …or even the St. Peter’s carnival.

However, if the service is only the absolute minimum, then the optional reward of a gratuity may also be minimized or omitted.

Receiving only the minimum service, we are less likely to dine again at this establishment, thus further decreasing the profitability for the servants.

In the extreme … a shutdown.  And, Congress in Washington will not come to the rescue.

[__02__]  Service is inevitable, but reward is optional. Jesus offers this parable as a challenge to you and to me.

That is, as one biblical commentator (footnote in New American Bible) observes, Jesus is telling his disciples that none of them has an automatic claim on their salvation or their place in the kingdom.

This caution was also part of the response to James/John, the brother. We recall that they wanted – or seemed to have pre-booked …or they wanted pre-confirmed seats in First Class, one at his right and the other at his left.

That was their claim, and the claim of other disciples for whom true greatness was sometimes misunderstood. They were claiming a right to a reward.

[__03__] The reward is optional…not guaranteed…

Meanwhile, all of us are called to serve, to a life of service and sacrifice.

Even a highly-paid star athlete with many goals and touchdowns is also under contractual obligation to serve, to produce, to be profitable to his or her team.

Some may be more highly compensated but everyone is a servant to someone or something. The question is not … will I serve … or will you serve.

But, rather, whom or what will you and I serve?

[__04__] In our Catholic / Christian faith, the call is universal.

This parable indicates this as do Jesus’ words, “Anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it … ”

To lose your life, meaning to die to yourself and to your own agenda, means to serve.

And, this service is our path to holiness, sanctity, to happiness.

Do we not also read in St. Paul – “it is better to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) and “the Lord loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7)

Service is inevitable. The reward is optional.

And, in our actions of service – whether service in our workplace, service to our family, service to a poor person, do we also choose / opt / select the reward – the reward being holiness.

[__05__] Do we stop at the minimum required service? Do we strive to go beyond what is required?

[__06__] In the beginning of this Gospel, the disciples say to our Lord and Savior, “Increase our faith.”

Responding to this question, Jesus gives them an answer not requiring a syllabus of reading, or a schedule of additional prayers to say ..and a final examination to prove their belief by year-end … by 12/31.

[__07__] Jesus does not give them an intellectual / academic answer but rather an answer based on action.

Service is inevitable. The reward is optional.

[__08__] Isn’t this also a similar reward for teachers, coaches, professors, principals…and also for mothers, fathers?

All of these individuals accept the call to care for a young person, persons, in either the home or the school or university.

This is also call not only to faith. Surely, a mother needs faith.  This is also a call to action.

[__09__] Service and sacrifice are inevitable for a student.

We “serve” and “sacrifice” in order to gain knowledge.

What are these sacrifices?

·        Opening a book …and turning off the music or laptop.

·         Waking up on time

·         Going to sleep on time

·         Being on time, punctual, cheerful

·         Paying attention in class

Academic growth – intellectual growth – does not just happen because we “have faith” in the teacher or even have faith in our ability to perform or have faith in what we often generalize as “God-given, natural talent.”

Having faith equals taking action.

In the parable, the disciples ask … increase our faith. Jesus responds.. get to work.

Service is inevitable, the reward is optional.

[__10__] What is the reward? The reward is not simply a high GPA at – or approaching – 4.0.  The reward is also in the work itself. The reward is possible because we have gone beyond the minimum requirement.

The reward is optional. God freely chooses to give it.  We freely choose to accept it.

 [__fin__]