Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Theos vs. Ego

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 8-26-2021 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

MATTHEW 24:42-51

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus praises the faithful servant who served his master in a theo-drama. We are called to serve our Master in the same way. A theo-drama is written and directed by God. On the great stage that is the created universe and according to the prototype that is Christ, we are invited to “act,” to find and play our role in God’s theater.

The problem is that the vast majority of us think that we are the directors, writers, and above all, stars of our own “ego-dramas,” with other people functioning as either our supporting players or the villains in contrast to whom we shine all the brighter.

Of course, our dramas are always uninteresting, even if we are playing the lead role. The key is to find the role that God has designed for us, even if it looks like a bit part. Sometimes, in a lengthy novel, a character who has seemed minor emerges as the fulcrum around which the entire narrative turns.

When we de-center the ego and live in an exciting and unpredictable relationship with God, we realize very clearly that our lives are not about us. And that’s a liberating discovery.

[MurphsLaw]

+++“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds
doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his
property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is
long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”+++

[ebb tide]