20 October 2021
Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
The character of Eddie Haskell from the 1950’s T.V. show “Leave it to Beaver” is a cultural archetype. For those who have not seen the show, Eddie was infamous for getting his friend Wally Cleaver and his younger brother, Beaver, in trouble with his “brilliant ideas.” Whenever Eddie was around an adult, he would be charming and courteous that no one would expect him to be a ne’er-do-well. It was all an act! He rarely took responsibility for his plans that ended horribly wrong. He was duplicitous in that his public demeanor with adults never matched who he was with his friends. He was a divided self. We see an Eddie Haskell character in our gospel passage today.
The servant parable continues the themes from yesterday where Jesus praised vigilance. Today he warns about the servant who becomes drunk on power. The servant in charge becomes tyrannical towards his fellow servants. Upon his return, the master reinstitutes justice by punishing the servant who did not act according to the master’s wishes. The servant is a different person when he is with the master than when he is away. He is an Eddie Haskell figure.
The servant as a character illustrates a possibility in all of us. More likely, we are not led to cruelty towards others but to the inability to follow our conscience in daily living. We all have had experiences not heeding the promptings of Christ in prayer. We are sinners and conflicted in ourselves. The first step on our moral journey, is recognizing our need for God. The second would be to pray for a sense of God’s presence not to leave us for we know who we are like when we do not feel God is nearby.