THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
19 NOVEMBER 2023
The
master in today’s parable is extremely generous. One talent is eighty pounds of silver or
6,000 denarii. Since an average laborer
earned one denarius for a full day’s work, one talent would give a worker 83
years of labor to invest. In today’s
dollars, he gives some forty million dollars to the three servants in various
amounts.
The master is
very confident. He never questions his
servants’ trustworthiness, ability, or integrity. He seems to have absolute confidence that
leaving these huge chunks of money is a wise and prudent decision. He is so confident that he goes away and
probably sleeps well at night on his journey.
He has high
expectations that his servants will use his gifts wisely. His expectations are obvious when he praises
the first two servants who invested his gifts well. They had met his expectations fully. But the third servant does not. He has buried his talent out of fear. Unlike the other two servants who obviously
love their master, he does not.
Jesus tells
this parable to us, who are his disciples. He has been extremely generous to
us. He has emptied himself for us in the
Mystery of the Incarnation, when he took on our human flesh and became one with
us in all things but sin. He has
entrusted the fullness of his love to us in his teachings and in the gift of
the kingdom of heaven in our midst. He
has given himself out of sacrificial love for us in his death and
resurrection. After he had accomplished his
mission, he ascended to the right hand of the Father and gave us the gift of
the Holy Spirit. He has been extremely
generous and has withheld absolutely nothing from us.
We became
his disciples when we were baptized. He chose
us, not because of our abilities or trustworthiness or integrity. He has confidence in us, simply he loves us
as his sons and daughters. He is
confident that we can live our baptismal promises in order to share in the
fullness of the eternal gifts he has so generously given us.
Like the master in the parable,
Jesus has high expectations. He expects
us to return his love by dying to ourselves on a daily basis to share in his
rising. Not only does he expect us to
imitate his dying, he is gives every one of us certain gifts to various degrees
and abilities. He expects us to invest those
gifts in specific ways by giving humble service. He expects us to imitate his example of washing
the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper.
When he comes again in glory at the
end of time, he will reward us for the ways in which we have imitated his
sacrificial love and the ways in which we have invested our gifts in humble service. He warns us that fear is the greatest
obstacle to being good stewards. We may
fail to die to ourselves when we are afraid that those deaths will have no
reward. We can neglect to be humble
servants, because we are afraid that no one will notice the sacrifices we
make. When we refuse to invest the
talents we have been given, we bury those talents in the ground. When the Lord comes again in glory, there
will be a judgment. He will expect a
return on his investment.
Saint Paul gives good advice. We know neither the day nor the hour the Lord
will come for us. The Lord will come at
the end of our individual lives, as he has already come for so many of our
loved ones. He will come at the end of
time. We cannot live in fear, because we
do not live in darkness. We live in the
light of faith, the light that instructs us and connects us with Christ the
light. As we wait, we need to be
actively involved in our faith, dying to ourselves and our selfishness each day
and investing our God-given talents in humble service. In the light of faith, we keep in mind the
incredible generosity of the one who gave his life for us.
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