Await the Master’s Return

October 21, 2008

Tuesday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

You…were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:11-13

Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. Luke 12:35-37

Piety

Father in heaven, the darkness of night comes earlier and earlier this month. The cold of the winter months approaches. Help us to keep our lamps lit and the fire warm so that when you knock, we are ready. We know that when we ask, seek, or knock, you are there for us. Give us the fortitude to be ready and vigilant with the welcoming you expect from your servants when you knock on our door through your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Study

As we get to the height of action in our national election cycle, today’s scripture makes use of the dichotomy between those who are “in the world” and those who are “in Christ.”

In Christ…on Christ’s mind. In Christ…our names are on his lips and he is calling us. In Christ…in his sacred heart. In Christ. Without Christ we are alienated. With Him, we are loved. With Him we have hope.

We are distanced from Christ when we are paying more attention to the world than to Him who made us his beloved. What closes the distance? There is nothing that we can do alone to close the distance. Only by Jesus shedding His blood for us do we close the distance between our lives and His love. He closes the distance by coming to us…as St. Luke shows in the Gospel. Jesus is like the master who comes to the servant.

What do we do to respond to his invitation? One answer lies in the Prologue to the Rule of St. Benedict which begins: “Listen, O my child, to the precepts of the master, and incline the ear of your heart: willingly receive and faithfully fulfill the admonition of your loving father; that you may return by the labor of obedience to him from whom you had departed through the sloth of disobedience.”

The Rule encourages us to “turn” away from our pre-occupations and “return” to the master by the “labor of obedience” like a new Prodigal Son or Daughter. Jesus may close the distance running toward us like the father in the famous story, but are we ready to receive him with the labor of obedience? Are we vigilant? Are we ready with holy hospitality to wait on the master willingly and faithfully and freely?

Action

Troy Davis is getting closer and closer to a date with death…a final punishment which may not fit the crime he is convicted of committing. However, some say that the guilt of Mr. Davis may have been orchestrated by tainted testimony from one of the witnesses against him…a witness who may be the actual killer. Many others have already recanted their statements made at trial.

With such doubts about the state’s case, people around the world are rallying to support him. They are encouraging Georgia not to meet out the harshest punishment until another trial can be conducted. This week, on Thursday, there will be a rally in Georgia. With appeals exhausted, carrying out the ultimate punishment now can only be stopped by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles or by Governor Sonny Perdue. Commuting Davis's sentence to life would affirm the principle that doubt is not acceptable in the application of a system that irreversibly takes human life.

Please write to the Governor of Georgia and/or the State Board this week and ask them to commute the sentence to life in prison. There is a form on-line here that you can use.