A reflection on Matthew 24:42-51 for Thursday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time.
The servant in today’s Gospel gets into trouble because he forgets something basic: the household is not his.
He has been given responsibility, but responsibility slowly turns into possession. The master is delayed, so the servant begins acting as though no one will question him. He mistreats the other servants, indulges himself, and behaves as though authority means he gets to do whatever he wants.
It is an old temptation. Apparently handing someone a little authority and hoping they remain humble has been a risky proposition for quite some time.
Jesus’ warning feels especially sharp when we think about leadership in the Church.
Every bishop, priest, deacon, parish leader, religious superior, ministry director, teacher, and volunteer serves in a household that belongs to God. None of us owns it. None of us owns the people in it. None of us gets to decide that our position gives us permission to humiliate, intimidate, silence, or control someone else.
That sounds obvious. History suggests otherwise.
Religious authority can be particularly dangerous because it comes wrapped in the language of God. A leader can convince himself that his preferences are God’s preferences, his judgments are God’s judgments, and resistance to him is resistance to God. Once that happens, accountability becomes inconvenient very quickly.
I think that temptation exists far beyond ordained ministry. It can happen to any of us who are given responsibility. I can become very attached to the way I think something should be done. I can mistake experience for ownership. I can become impatient with people who do not see things my way. Give human beings a committee, a key to the supply closet, and fifteen uninterrupted years in the same ministry, and we can develop surprisingly strong views about who belongs where.
The Gospel offers a simpler test.
How are the servants being treated?
Jesus does not praise the faithful servant because he defended his authority well or kept everyone in line. He praises him because he cared for the household entrusted to him. His authority was expressed through service.
That should tell us something.
When Church leadership is healthy, people should experience dignity, honesty, accountability, and care. Authority should help people grow closer to God, not make them afraid of the person exercising it. Leaders should be able to hear criticism without treating it as rebellion. They should be willing to admit mistakes. They should remember that people are not problems to manage.
And when people are harmed, protecting the institution cannot come before protecting them.
The abuse crisis made painfully clear what can happen when leaders begin protecting authority itself rather than the people entrusted to them. Secrecy, reputation, and institutional loyalty can become idols of their own. The household begins serving the servants instead of the other way around.
Jesus leaves very little room for that.
The master returns.
That detail is not meant merely to frighten us. It reminds us that authority is temporary and accountable. Every title eventually gets handed back. Every office is borrowed. Every ministry ends. Every leader stands before the same God as everyone else.
That is actually freeing.
If the household belongs to God, then leaders do not have to control everything. They do not have to protect their own importance. They do not have to have the final word in every conversation. They can listen. They can apologize. They can make room for someone else’s gifts. They can trust that God was running the Church before they arrived and, with remarkable courage, will probably continue after they leave.
Paul’s words to the Corinthians offer another piece of this. He reminds them that everything they have received is grace. Their gifts are not trophies proving their superiority. They are gifts given for the good of the community.
The same is true of authority.
A position in the Church is not proof that someone is wiser, holier, or more beloved by God than everyone else. It is a responsibility to serve.
And perhaps that is one reason Jesus’ image of the household is so useful. A household needs care. People need food. Someone must notice when another person is struggling. Someone must make sure the vulnerable are protected. Leadership is not primarily about guarding the front door. It is about caring for the people already inside and making sure no one is being trampled in the hallway.
The Gospel also asks something of those of us who are not in formal leadership. We can become too impressed by titles, charisma, certainty, or popularity. We can excuse behavior from religious leaders that we would recognize immediately as unhealthy anywhere else. Sometimes we are so eager for someone to speak with authority that we forget to ask how that authority is being used.
Jesus gives us permission to ask.
Are people being treated with dignity?
Are the vulnerable protected?
Can questions be asked?
Can leaders be challenged?
Is authority being used to serve, or to control?
Those are not disloyal questions. They are Gospel questions.
The faithful servant remembers whose house it is.
That may be the beginning of healthy leadership in the Church: remembering that the people belong to God, the mission belongs to God, the gifts come from God, and even the authority itself is borrowed.
We are caretakers.
And someday the keys go back.
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