NOT KNOWING YET DOING

 

NOT KNOWING YET DOING

There are three types of people that may be gleaned from today’s passage from Luke, a continuation of yesterday’s. There are those who know their duties very well, yet do the opposite. There, too, are those who know what their employer desires but do not fulfill them. But there are those who, because they do not know their master’s expectations, “do things deserving of a whipping.”

If I were the Lord (but who I definitely am not), I would add a fourth: those who do not know but who are up to their tasks and duties.

Martin Scott Peck, many years ago, talked about the first type in his book People of the Lie. They were the narcissists who think only of themselves, their wants and desires, and not much else. They have no capacity for empathy. The wicked (and narcissistic) servant did not only blame the master for being “slow in coming,” but he also abused the servants. Now, that sounds like everybody. All that on top of getting himself drunk.

But while I submit that such abusive and abusing narcissists abound, we are more familiar with the second type. Most of us will reject even the thought of us possibly being narcissists, but a great many of us will probably accept belonging to the second category. Let me explain.

Filipinos know all the rules. We know the “rules of engagement” in the battlefield that is EDSA (and everywhere else in this traffic-clogged country!). But the rules are always made for other people, not us. We know the “desire of the master” but we don’t act in accordance with what we know. We who belong to this set deserve the figurative “flogging” mentioned in Scripture. And there are those of us who honestly do not know any better, and ignorance, though no excuse, can mitigate responsibility.

The fourth, to my mind, are the real saints around us. They do not know much, but they know what it means to watch and serve. Neither schooled nor cultured, they are very much responsible and accountable. Are you? Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION -----------

From the four types of people cited above, to which do you belong?

Dearest God, may I learn to be more obedient and responsible, not only to man-made laws, but most of all to Your commandments. Amen.

Today, I pray for: __________________________