Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
The Servant Stands Ready
Other Celebrations for this Day:
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. For three-and-a-half weeks, we will hear in the first reading excerpts from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In this letter, Paul faces practical problems in a young Christian community in pagan territory, particularly internal divisions into factions, lapses in morality, relations with pagans, the role of charisms, and faith in the resurrection, all of which were difficult for the Greeks. In today’s greeting, he reminds the Christians of Corinth how they have become rich in Christ.
Gospel. Especially to the leaders of the community, the Lord says that at his coming, he should find them doing what they are supposed to do: serving the community in love.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
we affirm that we believe in you,
but we are in danger of forgetting
that deeds have to prove
the sincerity of our faith.
Help us to be wise and faithful servants
of steadfast faith and fervent love,
who follow the example of Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord for ever.
First Reading
Greeting and Thanksgiving
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Sosthenes, our brother,
to God’s church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, along with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I constantly thank my God for you and the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus.
For you have been completely enriched in Him with words and knowledge,
just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed in you.
You possess every spiritual gift and are only waiting for the glorious return of Christ Jesus, our Lord.
He will keep you strong until the end, and you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus’ return.
The faithful God will not fail you after calling you into fellowship with his Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1) I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
They discourse of the power of your terrible deeds
and declare your greatness.
They publish the fame of your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your justice.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stay awake!
For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Stay alert, because you don’t know what day your Lord will return.
Obviously, if the homeowner knew when the thief was coming, he would definitely stay awake and prevent his house from being broken into.
Stay alert, for the Son of Man will come at the hour you least expect.
Vigilance
Imagine a trustworthy and prudent servant, whom his master has entrusted with managing his household, to provide them with food at the right time.
Fortunate, indeed, is the servant whom his master will find working when he arrives.
Truly, I tell you, his master will entrust him with everything he has.
It’s not the same with the lazy servant who thinks, ‘My master is delayed.’
And he begins to mistreat his fellow servants while eating and drinking with drunkards.
But his master will come on a day he doesn’t know and at an hour he least expects.
He will severely punish that servant and assign him to the hypocrites. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Prayers of the Faithful
– That we may be attentive to God’s presence in our world in the goodness of people, we pray:
– That we may be awake to the love of God that he shows us and makes grow in us in every eucharist, we pray:
– That we may hope in the certainty that our commitment to justice and love and our dedicated service are needed to bring God’s kingdom in our world, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
as the body is dead without the soul,
this bread and this wine remain lifeless
if not animated by your Spirit.
Give life to these gifts, we pray you,
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
that Christ’s love may inspire our lives
to serve you and the people
and make us ready to meet at any time
our Saviour, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
you have called us to life
to be happy ourselves
and to make others happy.
Make us vividly aware
of our responsibility for one another.
Help us to be faithful servants
whose faith in you is made visible
in deeds of sincere love,
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
Blessed is that servant whom the master finds at work when he arrives. May the Lord bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Matthew 24:42-51
Be alert; the Lord is coming!
The Gospel today speaks about the coming of the Lord at the end of time and exhorts us to be watchful, faithful and prudent. In the early Church, many believed that the end of the world was near and that Jesus would return soon.
Many people continue to believe that the end of the world is soon to happen. As the year 2000 approached, many were worried and anguished because they predicted the end was near. These eschatological readings are often used to awaken people and oblige them to return to life in faith!
The problems of the early Christian communities were very much similar. They waited for the second coming of Jesus. There were people who no longer did any work because they thought the end was so close at hand, within a few days or a few weeks, and so, "Why to work, if Jesus will return soon?" (cf. 2 Th 3, 11). That is why St. Paul intervened and said: "Anyone who does not want to work has no right to eat!"
Others remained looking up at the sky, waiting for Jesus' return in the clouds. In general, Christians lived with the expectation of Jesus's imminent return. As the waiting period dragged on, they grew impatient and would say, "He will never come back!"
Up until now, the coming of Jesus has not happened! How could this delay be understood? It is because people are unaware that Jesus has already returned and he lives in our midst: "I am with you always, till the end of time." (Mt 28, 20). He is already at our side in the struggle for justice, peace, and life.
Jesus says this very clearly. Nobody knows anything regarding the hour of his coming: "Concerning this day and this hour, nobody knows, neither the angels, nor the Son, but only the Father.
A careless reading of this passage could lead us to misunderstand the text. There are chances that we understand God as a punishing God who would condemn those evil people to the fires of hell. "Will flog him severely and sentence him to the same fate as the hypocrites, where there will be lamenting and grinding of teeth," reads the end of today's Gospel.
Is it not true that God is also presented as a merciful and forgiving God? Will such a forgiving God condemn anyone? Here, Matthew uses the scenes of punishments common in the courts of kings and emperors, of which his readers were well aware. Using threats to encourage compliance is a literary device the Evangelist uses effectively. We believe in a forgiving God, not a punishing One.