Daily Reflection Monday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

We are well into the very momentous eighth chapter of Luke. We must say that Luke seems to simply group various disparate events and sayings of Jesus together in this chapter. Today’s comment about the lamp under the jar is certainly like that. The same metaphor is found in all three synoptic gospels. In Matthew it occurs at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter five and there (as in Mark) it is a bushel basket that no one puts a lamp under. Matthew also precedes it with Jesus saying, “You are the light of the world,” and concludes with Jesus saying, “Let your light shine before all.” Mark’s version is closest to Luke’s and also follows the parable of the Sower and the Seed. However, Mark adds, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you,” before the final line of Luke. That addition helps us better understand that enigmatic final line of Luke (and Mark). Luke also includes that verse about the measure, in his own fuller account, during his version of the Sermon on the Mount (it’s on “the plain” in Luke) earlier in 6:38 where Jesus begins by saying do not judge. “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

That, if you don’t know, is a good definition for the Indian term Karma. Karma, in Hinduism and Buddhism, is a very complex and difficult to define concept but in the West it is often summed up as, what goes around, comes around. Or, as Jesus put it in both Mark and Luke, the measure you give (or the measure with which you measure) will be the measure (the amount) you get back (and in Mark, you will receive even more than that). In other words, if you are magnanimous and loving, you will receive back from the world much magnanimity and love. Whereas if you are stingy and closed, that is how life will treat you. It makes a great deal of sense.

Finally, both Luke and Mark say here that, “Nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light.” What can be taken away from all this is the great necessity in the spiritual life for rigorous honesty and humility. Everything we have has been given to us. All is gift, we earn nothing and deserve nothing. It is all simply given to us from above, why, we do not know, but it most certainly is not because we are owed it in any way. We must understand that. And that ought to leave us feeling humbled. And that humility ought to lead us to the realization that our gifts are not meant for us to gloat over, but to use to further the Kingdom. They are meant not for ourselves but for our brothers and sisters, for our neighbor. And that means we must be very honest about our gifts, never daring to claim any credit for them and woe to us if we horde them to ourselves and do not use them freely and always to help others.

It is a great mystery that even our desire and ability to do good, to help others, is a gift from above. We’re not quite sure where we actually enter into the whole picture. Perhaps it is simply becoming aware of this and becoming humble, honest and willing to fully share these gifts. Whatever it is, if we do not humble ourselves and honestly admit that our talents, in many real ways, have nothing to do with us (for we have done nothing, nor could we ever do anything, to deserve them) then, as Jesus tells us, “To those who have, more will be given; and from those who do not have (that humility and honesty and willingness to share), even what they seem to have will be taken away.” As Jesus also told us, “Those with ears to hear ought to hear!”