Duty Calls, 'To Each One His Work': ἐξουσία

 

'Christ the Judge,' Fra Angelico, 1447.

Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning--lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch."

Mark 13:33-37 (RSVA)

W

hat is the meaning of our Lord’s injunction, “Watch,” “Stay awake,” “Keep alert,” “Be on guard,” all fitting translations? What do we actually have to do in order to heed this command to attentiveness, to awakefulness, alterness? Clearly it matters, our Lord is emphatic. He will return, both at our dying and the end of the world, and we will be found either ready and pleasing to Him, or asleep and displeasing, or any manner of imperfect degree in-between the two states.

 I briefly want to draw attention to one phrase: “and he put his servants in charge, each with his work”. In this single phrase we can draw something of the meaning of what it means to keep alert in the spiritual life. What it means to possess a soul that is awake, infused with the energy of grace, alert to spiritual snares, and attuned to the things of God.

 To translate the Greek more literally:

Watch, keep awake, for you know not when the time is. Like a man going on a journey, having left his house, and given his servants authority—to each one, his work.

 The Greek word for authority here is ἐξουσία (exousia). It is a broad term, and in New Testament usage denotes a sense of governing power, a delegated authority with full rights to exercise such authority by the one who granted it. Implied by the term is the fact that the one who has exousia has also the power, means and ability to carry out their charge.

 We are the Lord’s servants and He the Householder has left the House of the pilgrim Church in our charge. For some, this charge looks like four walls with screaming kids. For some, a parish congregation, or a religious community. For others, a pile of paperwork and fellow employees. For others, the care of patients, or students. We all have our domains to which we have been appointed and entrusted, in the words of our Lord in the Gospel: “to each one, his work”.

 The married man has his work. The married woman, hers. The priest his. The religious sister, hers. The monk, his. The widow, hers. The youth, theirs; and on top of this, we are all unique with different gifts, callings, charisms and jobs and/or tasks assigned to us.

 Every person that ever has been, or will be, has been given his work and will be judged accordingly—from every peasant and slave, to every king and pharaoh. There is no parent who will not be held accountable for their parenting, no priest who will not be held accountable for their ministry, no grown adult not held accountable for fulfilling the duties assigned to them. The same applies to peoples of any and no faith.

 Is the Householder harsh? Why would he judge us poor folks? Well, judgement is the means by which punishment is determined, it is true, but it’s also the only way of assigning appropriate reward. It is good to recall that our judge died for us, naked, humiliated, on the cross. So this judge will not be without perfect mercy. But mercy can only be perfect if it is true mercy, based on truth. The greatest truth being that God is Love and that this God has forgiven us in mercy. Should our judge find this splendid truth alive, awake in our hearts, and evidenced in the deeds we have done to our neighbours, then to the degree in which He finds it, to that degree shall He judge us favourably. As we read in James: “There will be judgement without mercy for those who have not been merciful themselves; but the merciful need have no fear of judgement.” (James 2:13).

 We Christians have it good (worse too, if we squander our spiritual-privilege). Baptised into Christ we are given an explicitly spiritual task on top of our temporal duties, such that they blend into one. Not to mention supernatural grace to help us live the life of grace. ‘To do what we gotta do.’ In baptism we are given the exousia, the power, authority and ability of Christ Himself, to live as Christians according to our state of life.

 Those who have received the power of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation have yet another advantage. This is the Sacrament of exousia, the Sacrament of holy anointing unto power. A Sacrament that gives vitality to the life of Christ received by the soul in baptism.

 What we must do in order to keep awake, alert and watchful is quite simple, even if in practice it is hard. It is to carry out the duties which God, and indirectly, life, has appointed to us; and to do all of these duties in accord with the greatest of all our duties. A duty that underlies, animates and gives purpose to them all: the duty to love. To love God, by doing all for his sake; and to love neighbour, because our Lord takes such love as done unto Himself.

 We don’t need anyone to tell us what our duties are.

 In our duties God’s Will for us is made blatantly obvious.

 The modern world, so ensnared by Satan, the original shirker of duty, hates the word duty. In other ages, and still present to some degree in our own age, the Devil can twist duty to become an end in itself, something done for vanity’s sake, social propriety, self-image, all cut off from love. The classic and revivalist stoic, although we can learn much from him, falls into this latter error. The sloth and the ‘liberated’ moral rebel falls into an opposite kind of error. All alike share one trait: they are spiritually asleep.

 We know our duties. We could write a list of them in our heads. Let us tend to these, each according to the priority of their moral weight, and the need of the moment, and let us do so as prayerful people. People who walk from Mass and the chapel, from rosary-beads in-hand and bedrooms, out into the field apportioned to us and to no other. Let us do, and do dutifully, complaints and fumbles, notwithstanding, but always in love.

 For we can do, do, do, but if we do not do in love, we do not do at all—we be mere sleepers walking. But if we do in love, we shall be awake and watchful, for the love of the Lord awakens the soul. Such love never sleeps, not even the sleep of the body can overcome it, nor the languor of our tired limbs and will.

 We read in the Song of Songs: “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it” (8:7).

 We could be impaired, locked-up, constrained in a straight-jacket, dosed-up on numbing agents, and thus outwardly prevented from doing any of our external duties, but should we still will the fulfillment of our duties in love, with eyes fixed on God who is our Exousia, our Power, and be thus joined to the secret and mystical work of the Crucified and Incarnate Christ operative within the Church and the world, then we are more active, watchful and awake than a whole army on amphetamines who serve some earthly exousia could ever be.

 This is a consolation, and not just to those deemed fit for nothing but euthanasia by the modern utilitarian world. For how sucky we are at doing our duties. Even if we tick the external boxes, how hard it is to get a full score for the overriding duty to love to the point of loving those who hate us.

 We could analyse our duty-fulfillment to the hills until the point we start to neglect our duties. So let us focus on doing what we can with what’s in front of us, repenting when we stuff-up, moving on, discerning, and acting again. Putting our faith not in our own doing, nor capacity to do—our own exousia—but in the Power, the Exouisa of He who is our strength and ability. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).

 Our actions matter, “but the Lord looks on the heart” first (1 Sam 16:7). Before any action, comes the extent of our will to love and fulfil our duties. We must rouse ourselves to such love (Isa 64:7). Ask of God to expand the holy desires of our heart. To wed our will to His Will of perfect love. We won’t grow into His love if we don’t ask for it! Then, the will aligned in the right place, if genuinely aligned, will flow into dutiful action.

 Often the action falls short, not reflecting what we really wanted to do. That’s part of our weakness. We’re not perfect parents, priests, religious, nurses, or teachers. But Christ is, and a sleepless faith and love, that always wants to increase, and stands on the humility of repentant trust to get what it wants—the fulfilment of His Will—can make up with Christ’s Exousia for what we lack. 

 By faith, in love, we unearth in our baptised soul the riches of Christ, the Resurrection and the Life, the Awakener, the Living One, who has delegated us with tasks already accomplished and made perfect in Him. Already crucified, resurrected and glorified in Him. The mother will find in Christ all the perfection of the motherhood she lacks, the father, the father, the priest the priest etc. The Spirit, working to the extent we let faith and love reign in us, then weds our doings to the doings of Christ. 

 Thus, may it be so, as long as we still do what we can, the Householder will find us awake and ready, and when he returns, at our own mortal end, and the end of the age, we shall find a smile somewhere on that mighty face. Even better, may it be a big fat grin.