Service Over Success

I just love Saint Peter. Here are the apostles, listening to Jesus in this parable, and Peter‘s response (of course) is, “Does this apply to us? Or just everybody else?” And the fascinating thing is that when you listen to Jesus’s response, it was particularly directed at Peter: “Truly, I say to you, the master will turn over to that servant all his property.” That’s the pope! Jesus turned over to Peter the entire Church…

But it’s not just the pope, as we heard in the Gospel reading. All of us are called to be faithful servants of God. Every pope, every bishop, every priest, every deacon, and yes, every lay person is called to be that faithful servant that the master finds doing His will when He returns. 

And not just [in] a church–He expects us to be working for the kingdom of God in our jobs, in our homes, in our sporting events, in our leisure time… In everything that we do, we should be working to build the kingdom of God. That's our job. 

Sadly, less and less people are even faithful servants in the church. I saw a couple of research projects: one said only 29% of Catholics even bother attending Mass on weekends, the other said it’s 31% (so we’re going to balance the two and say 30%). That’s still less than a third. Less than a third of Catholics come to church every Sunday and yet that’s one of the five pillars of the Catholic Church, along with: 

Go to confession at least once a year (and yes, you need it more than that),
Go to communion at least once a year (and yes, you need it more than that),
Observe the fasting and abstinence the Church sets before us,
And support the church in her mission. 
And yes–show up on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

This is why religious education is so important in our lives, because we need to know what it is to be a faithful servant of God (what it means to work in the vineyard) And we are only going to find this out if someone teaches us. Now, religious education, surprisingly, is not just for kids, because parents are supposed to be the primary teachers of the Faith of their children (and you’re not going to be able to teach them if you don’t know the faith). Now, you want to know the easiest way to learn the faith? Volunteer as a catechist. Because if you have to teach your kids or other people‘s kids the Faith, you’re going to have to know it. And it’s not that difficult, but we need to know our faith. We need to know what it means to be a faithful servant of God. 

One of the other issues is that so often when we think about being faithful servants of God, we start worrying about success. Am I going to be good at it? Is it going to be successful? Am I going to see a good outcome? You know what God’s answer to that is? Ask Mother Teresa: “We are called to be faithful, not successful.” Show up and be a faithful servant and let God take care of the results. 

In our readings this Sunday, just think–Abraham: God calls him when he’s 75 years old and promises him that he is going to make him a great nation. And due to God’s great sense of humor, He gives him one kid. One. Do you think Abraham was convinced that he was going to be successful? No. But he did what God asked him, because he was faithful. Saint Paul–first, he starts out persecuting the church, standing next to Saint Stephen while he’s being murdered (and not there to help, except in the stoning). And after his conversion, he works tirelessly to build the kingdom of God. Do you think when he’s sitting in prison (and he was in prison several times) that he ever looked out and said “Why am I doing this? Look what’s happening to me! This is never going to work out.” Or Saint Peter–the person that Jesus turned over his entire church to and said, “Here, it’s your problem now.” Peter gets crucified upside down in Rome. Do you think he thought he was a great success? If you think he thought he was a great success, you haven’t read the gospel according to Mark. Peter always saw himself as a failure and yet, 2000 years later, we’re sitting here listening to the word of God that’s been passed down for 2000 years by the Church that was led by Saint Peter, learning how to be faithful servants, learning how to work in the vineyard. 

We’re not called to be successful. We’re called to work in building the kingdom of God. We are called to be faithful servants And all of us: pray that the day will come when the master returns and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you didn’t lose heart.”

And Jesus, I trust in you. Amen.