“So you also, when you have done all that you have been commanded, say, ‘We are useless servants. We have done what we had to do..’“(Luke 17:10)
I will never tire of saying that among the most beautiful words in the Gospel is the expression: ”useless servant “. The word ”useless” is what best conveys the idea of what is important in life. All the most important and necessary things in life appear to us as “useless.”
Literally, useless means “not useful,” and if it is not useful, then it is outside the logic of profit. The world reasons with the logic of profit; God reasons with the logic of love. True love is useless. Spiritual life is useless. True friendship is useless.
The joy that matters is useless. Kissing the one you love is useless. Sacrificing yourself for a child is useless. Devoting yourself to God is useless. Loving someone for your whole life is useless. Changing the world is useless. I’m not crazy, I’m more serious than ever. If we did all these things to get something useful in return, then they wouldn’t be so beautiful and important.
It is precisely because we do them freely (which is another way of saying useless) that each of these things can make us happy. Because happiness is not a profit, it is the essence of life itself. And that is priceless. Priceless is another way of saying useless. “We are priceless servants.”
