THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
19 NOVEMBER 2017
When
we hear this parable, we tend to sympathize with the third servant. He only received one talent, unlike the seven
other talents given to the first two servants.
We become even more sympathetic when the master calls him “useless” and
throws him into the darkness outside.
But before we begin to feel too sorry for this guy, we need to take a
closer look at the parable. In the
ancient world, a talent weighed between 57-74 pounds in pure silver. That one talent would have afforded him a
comfortable existence for the rest of his life.
A closer
look also reveals that the parable is not about money or material
possessions. The parable is about how to
maintain a relationship in faith. Saint
Matthew uses the word kyrios for the
master. In the Liturgy, we use that
Greek word at the beginning of Mass during Lent to ask the Lord to have mercy
on us. Our Lord Jesus Christ has been
raised from the dead and has ascended to the right hand of the Father. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he
shares his life with us and invites us to be humble servants in sharing that
life with others. He will come again,
both at the end of our lives and at the end of the world. He wants us to share fully in the richness of
his risen life, not only in this world, but in the new and eternal Jerusalem.
The first
two servants understand that the master is the Incarnation of the love of the
Trinitarian God – three Divine Persons giving themselves totally out of love to
one another. They also understand that
he has given himself totally in love for them when he died on the cross. To use the words from the Gospel of Saint
Matthew that we have been hearing all year, they accept the paradox of the
cross. If we want to truly live with
Christ, we must die to ourselves and our own selfish interests. That is what those two servants do when they
take the risk of investing the divine life they have been given. When their Lord returns, he calls each of
them “my good and faithful servant” and doubles the life he shares with them.
The third
servant does not understand the intense love of the master. He sees his master’s example of giving himself
to others as too demanding. He is afraid
of the master. In fear, he refuses to
take any risk and buries the life that has been shared with him. Upon his return, the master refers to him as
“you wicked, lazy servant” and casts him into the darkness outside. The Lord is not being cruel or unfair. The servant has refused to enter into a
relationship of love. In being afraid to
die to himself, he has enclosed himself in the darkness of living only for
himself.
As we
approach the end of this liturgical year, Jesus addresses this parable to
us. When we were baptized, we became
servants of the humble Lord who washed the feet of his disciples and died for
them. We already share in the richness
of that love. The parable challenges us
to be good, faithful servants and to trust that dying to ourselves will
increase the love relationship we have with the Lord and with others. If anything keeps us from dying to ourselves,
it is fear. Fear can keep a couple from
honestly confronting the problems in their marriage. What if we fail and end up living miserable
lives? Fear causes a parent from
spending more time with the family. What
might happen to my career? Fear keeps us
from giving our gifts of time, talent, and treasure to the parish. What if my investment in the parish depletes
what I already have?
Saint Paul
reminds us that we do not know on what day the Lord will come for us, either at
the end of our lives or at the end of the world. So, he reprises the message of the
parable. We do not live in
darkness. We know the Mystery of the
Lord’s dying and rising. We can best
prepare for his coming by embracing that Mystery and die to ourselves on a
daily basis, without fear and with a great amount of love.
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