“Who, thinkest thou, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath appointed over his family, to give them meat in season. Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing. Amen I say to you, he shall place him over all his goods. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart: ‘My lord is long a coming:’ and shall begin to strike his fellow servants, and shall eat and drink with drunkards: the lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not, and at an hour that he knoweth not: and shall separate him, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The wise and faithful servant is the one called by God to tend to His people, to provide them the sweet savor of the Gospel: “O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet” (Psalm 33:9), not for honor, not for money, but out of an abundance of love distills the delectable dew of the words of the Lord into the hearts of those that hear: “Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass” (Deuteronomy 32:2). This, then, is the faithful and wise servant, who clings to the Lord with steadfast love through all things, but also endowed with the wisdom to bring out the treasures of the scriptures forward to the people, that they may bask in the magnificence and love that they contain: “All the vessels of gold and silver, five thousand four hundred: all these Sassabasar brought with them that came up from the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem” (1 Esdras 1:11). Such wisdom cannot be taken by force, but wisdom of the mind and heart is a free gift of God to the one that receives it, knowing that it will be placed in hands that care for Lady Wisdom’s beauty, and will enjoy her company not for mission’s sake, but for her own sake: “Say to wisdom: ‘Thou art my sister:’ and call prudence thy friend” (Proverbs 7:4). Or, “faithful” can mean that one’s every action is oriented to the love, glory, and praise of God: “To him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction, and honour, and glory, and power, for ever and ever” (Apocalypse 5:13), every thought, word, and action treated as precious and given to divine things: “Bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), and to be wise is to take the magnificent realities contemplated and hand them out appropriately to enrich the hearts of those that hear: “The lips of the wise shall disperse knowledge” (Proverbs 15:7). Or, this can be an extolling of the aforementioned mountains, who are both in love and wise, for many are the lovers that lack intellectual abilities, and many are the intellectuals who keep God’s words in their minds without them trickling into the heart, but wonderful, Theophila, is the one whose mind is keen and whose heart is aflame. When such gifts are used reliably in the service of God, for the doctor, preacher, or consecrated soul that is entrusted with the mysteries of God is called to live a perfect life, protected by a strict discipline: “Where there is no hedge, the possession shall be spoiled” (Ecclesiasticus 36:27), then is the wise and faithful servant is worthy of praise. It can also mean that the great teacher also be adorned with good works, that the wisdom of love may not be a purely abstract, theoretical wisdom, but through exercising both contemplative and active virtues, a pure picture of the entire Jesus, rather than a part, may emerge in the soul: “Patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing” (James 1:4). The lord of the household is Jesus, with His household being the Catholic Church; now, this need not refer only to popes, bishops, and priests, for St. Catherine of Siena helped guide the Church as a consecrated virgin, St. Francis revolutionized religious life as a deacon, St. Therese made the Gospel fresh in her total littleness; it is rather for the one that has a deep relationship with the Lord, as well as harnessing as many graces as He is wont to give and making an apt return on them: “Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above” (Matthew 25:20). The meat to give, then, are acts of love to all, simple truths to those with simple ears, and the deep, weighty things of God for those whose hearts and minds are ready for them: “I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel: say to them: ‘In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread:’ and you shall know that I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 16:12). Therefore, blessed is the one whom the Lord finds dispensing God’s love to the world, be it through teaching, work, prayer, or greater still, a combination of all three: “I became all things to all men, that I might save all” (1 Corinthians 9:22). Now, to the good hearer, the one that receives the words of God and does well, is given a heavenly portion of food: “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them” (Luke 12:37), but there is a greater reward for the good teacher, for these are set over His goods, participating in divine dignity with the Teacher of Teachers, for which is better, Theophila, to go to a holy site and take in its beauty and the presence of God, or to point the multitudes to the holy site and show them the way, that they may bask in that glory and beauty, and there pray themselves? Now, “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48), and to the deep lover of God it is expected to have one’s portion entirely in His love: “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup” (Psalm 15:5), while simultaneously yielding good fruit, and to not only miss this target, but worse still, turn back into sin, Jesus gives a strict warning. While it is natural for the desires to cry out for the pleasures previously enjoyed: “We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free cost: the cucumbers come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic” (Numbers 11:5), greater, Theophila, is the heart’s longing for your Beloved: “As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God” (Psalm 41:2), but to weary in the desert and turn against the Lord, forgetting His promises, is to die: “Therefore all the men, whom Moses had sent to view the land, and who at their return had made the whole multitude to murmur against him, speaking ill of the land that it was naught, died and were struck in the sight of the Lord” (Numbers 14:36-37). Now, the disposition of the one entrusted with much should be that of a servant: “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11), whereas to walk in pride, lording one’s office, consecrated state, or knowledge over others and detesting them is to spoil the gift of each of these things. Furthermore, to be an alien to the lowly but a friend of luxuries such as bars is against Gospel poverty: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3); “Needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10). To beat one’s fellow servants can come by harsh words, for the lofty soul is called to be a minister of beautiful words, letting beauty and grace adorn them as a robe: “Because of truth and meekness and justice: and thy right hand shall conduct thee wonderfully” (Psalm 44:5), or by bad example beating the conscience of another: “Now when you sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). The Lord will separate this soul, who was given much and made a poor return, and be removed from the joyful company of saints. Or, to be separated is to have the good works that one did be separated from them and be important pieces in the love stories of others, but to the one that fell away, their soul will not know such treasures. There can also be a link here, given the term hypocrite, that this is the one that works in the field and at the mill, but with an intention not to make God loved, but another purpose, for which their hearts are not taken away from them into heavenly places, to drink of the Lord: “I know a man… that he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter” (2 Corinthians 12:3-4), but instead are left on the ground to wallow in vice, self-love, and hatred of others. To you, Theophila, it is given to await eagerly your Beloved’s coming, like one beloved looking out her window for the arrival of her lover: “Behold he standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices” (Canticle 2:9), adorning the room of your heart with beautiful things: “He paved also the floor of the temple with most precious marble, of great beauty” (2 Paralipomenon 3:6), and your garden of souls in your care, even if these are unmet and attained by prayer, with flowers and sweet odors: “Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruits of the orchard. Cypress with spikenard. Spikenard and saffron, sweet cane and cinnamon, with all the trees of Libanus, myrrh and aloes with all the chief perfumes” (Canticle 4:13-14).