11/10/2020 5:47:11 AM
"We are unprofitable servants" (Lk 17:10)
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Saint Theodore the Studite (759-826)
monk at Constantinople
Catechesis 21
"We are unprofitable servants" (Lk 17:10)
My brothers, fathers and children, once again I am fulfilling what I owe you, I mean recalling the catechesis. (…) Whoever is zealous in his tasks and conscientious in the service assigned to him, who does so, even more, as if he were serving God and not man, shows himself to be a workman without reproach (cf. 2 Tim 2:15): let him take on himself the heaviest tasks, let him rejoice in watching over his neighbor, knowing that a great reward is being kept for him in the heavens. (…) whatever that task may be that we have undertaken, small or great, in an unceasing race and an inextinguishable desire for eternal blessings let us endure everything valiantly, let us bear everything with good humor, let us accomplish everything under the inspiration of God, mutually forgiving each other (cf. Eph 4:32; Col 3:13), filled with tenderness for one another to the point that each one would wish to give his life for his brother in spirit and in his body. And if the only begotten Son of God invites and persuades you [to act] in this way, he who, in obedience to God the Father, emptied himself even to an infinite degree of abasement to the extent that from being master he became slave, he experienced death, the death of the cross (cf. Phil 2:8), then that is joy for me, a sinner and without hope, inextinguishable and ineffable gaiety! Joy for you too who fulfil his commandments and inexpressible happiness! It is not just here below you receive glowing praises from everyone who witnesses what is taking place in you, you overcome the enemy and resist his suggestions and tricks, but in the world to come as well you will dance in the presence of the glory of Christ our God and will be counted among the angelic choirs and the assembly of the saints, "there where is the dwelling of all who are in joy" (Ps 86:7 LXX) as the psalm says, O most esteemed brothers. Such is our reminder!