Have We Done What We Ought to Do?
Gospel Reflection for October 5, 2025 - Luke 17:5-10
And the apostles said to the Lord: Increase our faith.
And the Lord said: If you had faith like to a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this mulberry tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou transplanted into the sea: and it would obey you.
But which of you having a servant ploughing, or feeding cattle, will say to him, when he is come from the field: Immediately go, sit down to meat:
And will not rather say to him: Make ready my supper, and gird thyself, and serve me, whilst I eat and drink, and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink?
Doth he thank that servant, for doing the things which he commanded him?
I think not. So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do. (Luke 17:5-10 DRA)
A common question asked by Catholics today is: should the Church “force” us to do things, or should they just be made optional so that we can do them freely instead of by compulsion? Since Vatican II, the Church has largely gone with the second option, removing most days of fasting and abstinence from the calendar; dispensing from apostolic traditions such as refraining from meat on Fridays throughout the year and women veiling at Mass; making most of the Mass customizable by the celebrant; and rarely mentioning other obligations like dressing modestly and reverently at Mass, going to Confession regularly or praying for the holy souls in Purgatory. Like meatless Fridays, many of these obligations are now treated as options – good and praiseworthy, but not “forced.”
For the preceding 1960 years of the Church, however, in East and West, this was not the usual stance (except among Protestants of course). The Church had many obligations, including on priests and religious, who were bound to follow much more precise rubrics in the ancient Roman rite and a weekly reading of the entire Psalter in the traditional Divine Office, and on the laity, with meatless Fridays and more frequent fasting/abstinence, among others. This sense of duty and obligation created a mentality of humble service and responsibility in the Church, a pervasive sense that God doesn’t exist for us, nor is the Church at our service, but rather we are God’s humble servants, those who wait on Him like the courtiers of a king, receiving whatever favors He deigns to give and deserving none of them.
This is the view which Our Lord extols in His parable today, the idea that as Christians, and indeed as creatures, we are undeserving of God’s gifts – of being, of life, of any kind of goodness we receive – and by our adherence to conscience, to natural law, to civil human law, to God’s divine law in revelation and to the positive precepts of the Church we are not truly commendable because we only do what we are obliged to do.
It is our duty to serve God, to worship Him as the apostles and our ancestors have handed down to us in the ancient rites of the Church and to obey the laws He has established, and for our service we are rewarded but only because of God’s infinite mercy and gratuitous generosity, not because He is somehow bound to pay us. He does not thank us for our service, as though by our obedience we truly helped Him, since He has no real need for us or our works, yet He still bestows His gifts on us all the same. As St. Cyril of Jerusalem teaches,
Our Lord teaches us that it is no more than the just and proper right of a master to require, as their bounden duty, subjection from servants, adding, Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. Here then is the disease of pride cut away. Why boastest thou thyself? Dost thou know that if thou payest not thy debt, danger is at hand, but if thou payest, thou doest nothing thankworthy? As St. Paul says, For though I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. (1 Cor. 9:16.) Observe then that they who have rule among us, do not thank their subjects, when they perform their appointed service, but by kindness gaining the affections of their people, breed in them a greater eagerness to serve them. So likewise God requires from us that we should wait upon Him as His servants, but because He is merciful, and of great goodness, He promises reward to them that work, and the greatness of His loving-kindness far exceeds the labours of His servants. (Catena Aurea)
So, to answer the opening question of this reflection: yes, the Church should “force” us to do things, according to the duties she has received in Tradition, and to think or act as though this is somehow inappropriate is to contradict not only Catholic history but Scripture and God Himself, since this is precisely how He treats with us and how He has always arranged His Church, both in her old and new covenant forms.
For some, this can seem to make Christianity a hard, dry, “legalistic” or Pharisaical religion, where we are saved merely by “following the rules”. But this is to equate God’s ways with man’s. God’s law is not an artificial imposition of power, as it sometimes is in human law, but is utterly natural to us and perfect for us, giving us what we need and fulfilling all the desires which He has instilled into us.
Unfortunately, it isn’t only people outside the Church who have this misconception. Many Catholics take it to the extreme, where one is required to accept everything promulgated or even casually stated by the hierarchy of the Church or else one is not a true Catholic. Others, however, violate St. Paul’s exhortation in the Epistle for priests and bishops to honor the grace of Holy Orders which they, like St. Timothy, received at ordination with a spirit “of power and love and self-control”. Instead, they have “a spirit of cowardice,” kowtowing to the popular fads and ideologies of the world such as the LGBT agenda, climate change activism, and even the equation of capital punishment and enforcement of immigration laws with abortion, as though the ripping apart and harvesting of unborn children is the same as executing criminals, which has existed in the Church since Moses by God’s command, or regulating national borders which all countries have a right to do.
These errors show a spirit of cowardice in the face of worldly pressures which, as Catholics, we are not required to obey, even when the Catechism is changed to reflect such false opinions. Our first duty and responsibility – and joy – is to obey God and what He has given to the Church in her infallible Tradition, not erroneous statements in off-the-cuff comments from clergy or even in non-infallible official documents of the Magisterium.
All Catholics by Baptism have received a share in this spirit of power and love and self-control which St. Paul upheld and which should inspire all of us to do our duty of piety to God and the Church fearlessly and courageously, suffering whatever hardships come to us as a participation in the Cross of Christ. Unlike Habakkuk in the first reading, we no longer have to wait for God’s answer to the problem of evil: we already have it in the Cross. Now we only have to conform ourselves to Him and await His triumphal return.
By serving God, we are conformed to God, just as Christ, by His obedience in the Passion and throughout His earthly life, was so conformed to God in His humanity that He ascended bodily to His right hand and now even His human face is become an icon of God Himself. This is the Body of Christ into which we have been incorporated by the Sacraments of the Church, and it is this perfect image alone that can fulfill our deepest desires and bring us true happiness.
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