Father Jason: Today we have the opportunity for a dialogue homily. Even though you’re watching from home, I’m going to ask you to participate in this dialogue homily, because this is something that we all learn when we’re growing up in school.

Jesus gave us many images to help us understand who he is and who we are. And so I want to remind us of those images that he gave us. Ready? Jesus says that he is the shepherd and we are the…

Audience: Sheep.

Father Jason: Sheep. Did you say sheep at home? Good. That’s right, and that the shepherd always protects his sheep, never lets the sheep go without…with getting lost, always watches over the sheep, constantly.

Another one. Jesus says…ready? Jesus is the vine, and we are the…

Audience: Branches.

Father Jason: Branches. We are the branches, exactly. Jesus is the vine, we’re the branches. And the nourishment that we need is going to come through Jesus, right? The nourishment that we need to grow and produce life is going to come through Jesus, right? Okay. Very good, two for two.

Today we have the third image, a beautiful image. We don’t use this one as much as we use the other two images. But Jesus says he is the master, we are the servants. He is the master, we are the servants.

What I like about this Gospel is two things. First of all, he says always be prepared. Like a good servant, always be prepared to open the door when the master comes and knocks. So I guess that’s the real heart of our invitation today, is make sure that we live as prepared people. Through our prayer, through our generosity, through our hopefulness, through our compassion for our brothers and sisters, by reaching out to those who are very much in need, we are called to live, to live as prepared people.

Now, the second piece is this. If the master comes and finds us well-prepared, living as his faithful servants, or stewards, sometimes we translate it as faithful stewards, if Jesus comes and finds us as faithful stewards, this is what he’s going to do. Did you hear it? It’s not my image, it’s Jesus’ image. Jesus said he’s going to gird himself, put on the apron. Gird himself, have them, meaning the servants, sit down at the table, and the master himself is going to proceed to wait on the servants himself. Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine that the master himself is going to have the servants sit down at the table and the master will proceed to wait on the servants? That’s our hope. That’s our goal. That’s why we stay ever ready. That’s why we stay ready and always prepared as Jesus’ faithful disciples, Jesus’ faithful servants, good stewards of all that we’ve been given.

We’ve been given a lot, haven’t we? We think about the ways that God has gifted us so generously. The least we could do is always be good stewards of that and to always be prepared for the day that the master comes and knocks. Then he’ll bring us to the banquet hall, and he’ll sit us down, and he’ll prepare a meal for us in our very sights. That’s Jesus’ promise.