Mt 24: 42-51
Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
“Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions.
But if that wicked slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Habits of Great Souls
The “faithful and prudent servant” in the Gospel probably didn’t spend much effort weighing debauchery against responsibility, she/he just acted out of habit – good habit.
We might be tempted to minimize the virtue of such action since there’s no great tension between good and evil – just a person doing her/his job. But this would miss the point that the development of automatic responsible and compassionate habits is a great and virtuous accomplishment.
Even as a proponent of contemplative prayer, I concede that practicing our way to holiness is more effective than praying our way there. By adopting, through practice, the habits of great souls, we do more than mimic behavior. We shape our values and our way of being in the world.
The one habit that Ignatius insisted his followers keep? The daily examen.
What habit of a great soul in your life would you like to take on for yourself?
—Michael Coffey is the Executive Director of Casa Romero Renewal Center, a Jesuit, urban, bilingual spirituality center in the central city of Milwaukee.
Prayer
Loving God,
As I try to imitate the goodness I see in others, please redeem my feeble efforts by shaping my heart according to Christ’s. Little by little free me from my insecurities so that my first impulse will always be to love.
Amen.
—Michael Coffey