27 My Monologues with the Ungrateful, Unmerciful, and go Servant (Lk: 18) Part One
Oh, the Debt-ridden Servant,
How fortunate and lucky are you!
Weren't you extremely fortunate and lucky to have been waved off such an unimaginably huge amount of debt?
Fortunate and lucky, you are!, right?
According to the biblical experts, a Denarius was a day's wage for a laborer and a Talent was equivalent to a Sixteen long years of the wages of an ordinary laborer. So, the Ten Thousand Talents would amount to the wages of 1600000 years (10000 × 16), right?
It means a very huge amount of humongous proportion which no ordinary laborer could ever repay, right?
Oh, the Debt-ridden Servant,
To begin with, how did you incur such a massive amount of debt equivalent to tens of millions of dollars?
Was it due to your deliberate mismanagement?
Did you swindle the amount?
Did you really mean when you said you would reimburse the amount?
Even if you meant so, would it have been practical?
How could you ever find such a huge amount to repay?
How and where could you find the enormous amount?
How on earth, did you incur such a debt?
How did it happen?
Did someone cheat you or steal it?
If so, you would have/you should have mentioned it to the King, right?
There was no such mention from you.
Neither the Narration mentions it.
Naturally, the reader is almost forced to conclude the entire episode as a very deliberately and skillfully planned and very cleverly executed gross misappropriation of the enormous royal wealth by yourself, right?
Your subsequent cruel and merciless approach to the servant who owed you a mere hundred Denarii was indicative of your heartless, unrepentant, unappreciative, and ungrateful attitude, right?
Oh, the Debt-ridden Servant,
Pardon me, if I am prejudiced,
yet let me share with you as I see you and the whole scenario you were in.
You were a very able and a very hardworking person.
As almost all of us humans, you were very ambitious as well, right?
Initially, you were efficient in doing your job right.
You were also very effective in doing the right job of administering the property and wealth of the King, right?
Your hard work and dedication were acknowledged and rewarded by the King and thus you became his highly esteemed employee, didn't you?
Some think you were appointed as a Provincial Governor of a selected area.
In the initial years you gave your best of unselfish service, right?
Thus you became a very highly trusted royal employee.
The enormous royal wealth you had at your disposal, the near total royal trust you enjoyed, and your highly successful administrative abilities, all these began to tempt you.
Oh, the debt-ridden Servant,
Your ambition became unbridled.
Your avariciousness was unbounded.
Your successful self confidence was turned into arrogance and overconfidence.
Your love and loyalty for your Royal Employer gave way to total disgust and disregard for him, right?
You embarked on an embezzlement of a massive proportion.
You were arrogantly cocksure you would never be caught, weren't you?
But caught you were!
From the seemingly impregnable fortress of your uncontrolled authority and unlimited power, you were brought down and were stripped of all power, position, and pelf.
There, you stood rightly accused and publicly ashamed.
But you were a past master in playing any tune which would save your skin.
You could assume and act out any role to suit your personal agenda.
As you knew fully well your Royal Employer was an immensely kind hearted, completely compassionate, and easily forgiving a person.
Falling in prostration, pleaded you did, begged for mercy and for more time to reimburse the embezzled Ten Thousand Talents.
As you thought, wished, and wanted you were not only given more time to pay and was granted temporary reprove and relief, the Compassionate King shockingly surprised you and everyone else by totally cancelling
the enormous debt you owed him!
Unbelievable indeed!
Unimaginable indeed!
Unexpected of indeed!
This was yet another chance for you to put things straight,
to mend your ways, and
to start anew.
You could have and you should have dwelt on the generous forgiving treatment you got from the King, though you didn't deserve it at all.
Oh, the Debt got cancelled Servant,
How come you never thought of thanking this greatly compassionate and generous King for having totally cancelled your debt.
Remember, you only pleaded with him to be patient with you and for more time to repay the debt, right?
Yet he gave you a total cancellation of your debt, didn't he?
It seems there wasn't even fleeting thought in your mind to offer sincere thanks to this great generous royal soul, right?
Nothing of this sort is mentioned in the Narratives as well, right?
How come neither a thought of gratitude crossed your mind nor a feeling of gratefulness struck your heart?
I am afraid you just couldn't think or feel so.
Because, your mind and heart were totally preoccupied with yourself, with your overblown ego.
You gave credit to yourself for getting the debt cancelled.
Oh, the Debt got cancelled Servant,
You might have thought something on the following lines.
"Look, if I got the debt cancelled, it is because I played my cards well. I knew this King is so simple to the point of being a simpleton that I can get around him very easily. You know, I pretended, I acted, I pleaded, I begged, and I got him impressed.
I, so to say, bought him with my dramatic acting of being in a very pathetic condition.
I deserve the credit for putting up a near natural facade of helplessness and I got the King moved with compassion on my pitiable condition.
As a result of my deft maneuvering, the King cancelled my entire debt!"
Oh, the Debt got cancelled Servant,
You gave total credit to yourself for getting the debt cancelled, right?
You, indeed, are Street Smart, right?
Oh, the debt got cancelled Servant,
Is that not the reason you had no qualms of conscience whatsoever to pounce upon the one who owed you just Peanuts of petty penny of a hundred Denarii, right?
Oh, the Street Smart, the debt got cancelled Servant,
You've got a near perfect match in me, myself!
Looking back into my past, i can very much identify myself with you. On many a times, I have behaved like you! From my childhood on, I have been very adept in getting sympathetic considerations from my close family circle. As a child, many times, I have heard my Grandparents repeatedly reminding my cousins and others to treat me with extra care and concern as I was a child who lost its mother as an infant babe. Sure, i was treated so. But gradually I began to consider and claim to be a special child who has a right to be treated with extra care. I impressed upon my Grandparents with my pleasing behavior. I could get away with many of my naughtiness with a mere slap on the wrist!
I prided in it.
Slowly and steadily, a spoiled brat in me began to show up and got myself scott free from many a mischievous behavior. I began to get emboldened with the thought of being able to get around with other family members of every age. I kept on such a behavioral pattern as an adolescent, as a seminarian, as an ambitious young priest and had cleverly used it either to escape the after effects of my misdeeds or to enhance my ego. Occasionally, even now I do behave like you.
Oh, the debt got ridden Servant,
I am often tempted to think all that I have achieved is mainly due to my clever and cunning ways. As a result, often I don't to feel to be grateful, to feel indebted to others. I keep thinking of others in a belittling manner.
Sure, i have had occasions where I have been generously forgiven. Yet, like you, I was and am often unable to show and share similar generous behavior to others who owe me Peanuts of petty pennies!
That's me, many a times!
Oh, my Lord and my God,
You narrated this parable for me too, right? You had me in mind as well.
Thank you for being generous with me and keep offering me your forgiveness and forbearance, despite my ingratitude.
Sadly, often, I am not able to be grateful to you.
Even at times, I don't feel the need to thank you! I lull myself into thought: I deserve special treatment and consideration from You and from others.
Oh, my Lord and my God,
Despite my repeated acts of gross mismanagement of the many Talents you have showered me with,
I keep on going on my Wayward ways.
Thank you for your immense patience with me.
You haven't thrown me out and away.
You keep giving me chances after chances to mend my ways.
You keep waiting for me, right?
I do desire to have a constant sense of gratefulness and gratitude towards You as well as to my fellow humans.
Oh, my Lord and my God,
I want to spend my left over life to keep counting Your Blessings for me, Blessings big and small, Blessings of the past and of the present.
With the Psalmist, I want to keep singing,
"What thanks, can I render Thee... "
Oh, my Lord and my God,
I want to spend some time in silence in Your Presence..
just counting the Blessings
You keep on showering on me..
Amen
JoAchen
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
joachenmonologues@gmail.com
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PS
Dear Reader,
These Reflections are neither pure scientific exegesis nor are they any highly theological explanations. They are my devotional meditations mainly meant for my personal renewal and spiritual growth. They are a part of my, 'Prodigal Priest's' journaling on my Pilgrimage to the Home of our Heavenly Father. You are welcome to share them.
Dear Reader, I keep holding you in my prayers and I request you to include me in yours.
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