Everyone likes recognition for the work they do; some people even crave it, but Our Lord in today’s Gospel encourages us to be content with the fact that we’ve been able to serve another and perform our duties. There are many people in the world who’ll never get Employee of the Month, but who have done their work well. If that moment of recognition comes, Our Lord tells us what our attitude should be: humility. If recognition is the motivation for our service, it’s no so much service as trying to climb the social or career ladder, and that can lead to a false sense of entitlement that makes us frustrated when we should just be focusing on doing our job.
Sometimes service without recognition is hard. In the First Reading Our Lord reminds us that the souls of the virtuous suffered trials, sometimes apparent disaster, but in the end they were in the hand of God and shined, full of grace and mercy. We shouldn’t worry so much about receiving recognition; in the end Our Lord will give us the recognition we deserve as the good and just God that he is.
Let’s focus today on being useful servants who do their duty and not so much on being Employee of the Month. If we do, maybe we’ll get both. It’s in the Lord’s hands.
Readings: Wisdom 2:23–3:9; Psalm 34:2–3, 16–19; Luke 17:7–10.