At the best of times, a person may be God’s servant; he may come to do God’s will, as the Psalmist says. But how rare those times are! Who, without blushing, could describe himself as having a life devoted to doing God’s will?
Somewhere Nietzsche said derisively about Christians that they don’t even look like the redeemed.
But what are the redeemed supposed to look like? What is it to be God’s true servant, to manifest the glory of God?
It isn’t a matter of being on top of the world. It isn’t a matter of having nothing to be sad about either. The First Reading jumps from verse 3 to verse 5 in the text of Isaiah. But verse 4 is the voice of the Messiah, and it says, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing. ... ”
It continues with what is in effect the answer to the question raised by Nietzsche’s scornful claim about Christians. My God is my strength, the voice of the Messiah says. Those who are the true servants of the Lord are those who find their strength in God.
So Nietzsche was just wrong about the redeemed of the Lord. The redeemed of the Lord aren’t those who look glorious in strength or in any other way either. The true servants of the Lord are those who find their strength, their loveliness, in the Lord. They are glorious in the sight of the Lord.
Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and
C). This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the
collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org