Value of Our Works

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things

which are commanded to you, say,

we are unprofitable servants:

 we have done that which was our duty to do (Lk.17, 10)

No one gets surprised when, for instance, soldiers at war perform their duty with true selflessness, forgetting themselves, so that they could exactly follow the orders of their commanders. Everyone finds it quite ordinary and no one expects an award for performing their duty. We, however, are very inclined to proclaim a great achievement if we sometimes succeed to do something, forgetting that we are just the servants of our Heavenly Master, and have received everything from Him and are worth nothing, that we can not achieve anything without Him and receive strength and opportunity to do something from Him only.

Let us never forget our complete unworthiness realizing that our works are worth nothing compared to what we daily receive from our Lord. And which of us can truly say that he did everything what he was supposed to? And even so, let us remember that we are just servants, who did what they were supposed to.