C:27th Sun of OrdTime (6 Oct 2019) - HOPE FOR THE SERVANT (Lk 17:5-10)

Our gospel today uses the illustration of servanthood, i.e., that servants are duty-bound to perform their given tasks at the service of their master and should not expect to be invited over at his dinner table. Instead, servants will be told: “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink” (Lk 17:8). Since there was no mention of a wage or any form of recompense, we are led to believe that what Luke refers to here is not a hired servant, but, probably, a slave.

If the societal order of slavery is being meant here, Luke must have been thinking along with the Roman policy of slavery since Palestine was under Roman control in the first century CE. During this time, however, the number of slaves had decreased especially after a series of reforms in the Roman Republic that happened in response to various uprisings of group of slaves, viz., First Servile War (135-132 BCE), Second (104-100 BCE) and Third (73-71 BCE). Slaves continued to exist but were produced mainly as sanctions for criminal offenses and captivity during wars. The novel thing was that nobody was to be a slave for life: abolished already was the permanent slavery by birth, by indebtedness, or by social status, at least, as per Roman legislation. Furthermore, slavery was limited only to one’s younger years; slaves were usually manumitted at their 30s (this practice was restricted in Lex Fufia Caniniain 2 BCE and Lex Aelia Sentia in 4CE). After an average of a decade of service, the slave may be manumitted by the master, and may even be awarded full Roman citizenship depending on his/her performance and faithfulness. Because of the ultimate dream of finally reaching one’s freedom, a slave would be subservient to the master at all cost lest the reality of being emancipated is spoiled or delayed.

With this background, we can better understand why the slave in our Lukan account would not complain to any task given even when tired, nor would not even demand compensation for the service rendered. It is because a slave gradually inches forward toward the grand prize, i.e., total freedom. Hope, then, becomes the main weapon through all of the trying times of slavery. This is what constantly fills the mind, yet it is at the same time the motor that drives a slave to persevere in life. Without clear hope, the daily servile ordeal is a huge burden to carry.

It is with a similar perspective that the Lukan Jesus is conditioning all of us, i.e., that we regard ourselves as mere slaves who need to fulfill our duty (Lk 17:10). But we are not doing this to impress or simply please our masters. We do it because there is a future life that we dream of: a life of perfect liberty and happiness, when we will be of the same free status as our masters and we can eat and dine with them as equals. Lk 12:37 informs us that this scenario is certainly possible: “Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.”

Slavery had been present in our society from time immemorial until the 19thcentury. The Emancipation Proclamation 95 signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 eliminated African-American slavery and has stood as the landmark in the recognition of every human being’s innate right for a free life. However, there continue to exist new forms of slavery in our present society that further marginalizes the poor and removes the slightest hope for a better life. Institutions that simply protect the status quo, favor the elite aristocrats and eliminate equal opportunities for everybody to progress, hence, are contrary to our Christian values and should be seriously challenged.

Our liturgy today teaches us not only to continue to build on hope, but also to oppose structures that perpetuate oppression of the poor as Habakkuk in our First Reading complains against: “Therefore, law has been dispersed,and judgment is not administered at all,because an impious person oppresses the just—on this account, judgment will come forth perverted” (Hab 1:4). May we then become agents both of communal hope and political renewal, too, in our own social contexts.

- Rex Fortes, CM