DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Proverbs 31,10-13.19-20.30-31; 1Thess 5,1-6; Matt 25,14-30: 33rd Sunday of Year A)
1. Today’s gospel reading of the parable of the talents underlines the necessity of making the gifts which God has given us fruitful. These gifts could be natural like intelligence, strength of will, capacity to show affection and love or supernatural ones like faith, hope, love and grace. The gifts of God are like capital, which one invests, and as such, it is expected to yield interest. Any capital that does not bring in profit is wasted. At the end of our lives, it is expected that we are to give account of both the capital and the interest of the gifts God bestowed on us.
2. That is why we should neither waste nor carefully guard our talents and return them to the master without fruits. We need to make them yield interest for our own benefits and for that of others, especially for the urgent needs of the body and soul. The gospel warns that if we selfishly hold on to the gifts given to us and not use them for works of faith, hope and charity especially for the benefit of the others, we run the risk of even losing the meagre benefits we expect to accrue to us from the gifts. The gospel also condemns the attitude of auto-sufficiency, and thinking that one’s merits come from oneself, forgetting that all one has, comes from God.
The gospel reading, in a way, makes it clear that we are at the service of a master that is exigent. The entire gospel message continuously keeps us uncomfortable with this idea. The seemly stern and jealous God of the Old Testament is, in the New Testament, presented by Christ with a name and image of a Father. Yes it is true, but not as a Father like Father Christmas who dishes out gifts here and there without asking for accountability. Though He is generous and magnanimous, he also expects and demands correspondent work and accountability on our part. We need to be reminded that there is a time to render accounts of our actions and dealings. The gospel does not let this reality slip off our hands. It always reminds us of this fact. We should not be wallowing in the illusion that at the end of our lives there will be a general amnesty. As Paul holds: For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one will receive recompense according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil. (2nd Cor 5,10).
The subject matters of our judgement (our final examination) will be:
- (a) how we have put into work the talents/gifts God has given us
- (b) what we have done with our lives, faith and the word of God which has been made available to us,
- (c) and what use we have made of the many occasions of good work God puts in our disposal.
We should, indeed, avoid what one of the servants in the parable did. Instead of putting the piece of talent given to him to work, the third servant in the parable hid the talent and consequently the talent bore no profit. He probably represented the people of Israel and especially their religious leaders, who instead of utilising the wonderful opportunities and privileges offered to them in relation to Christ’s coming, rather wasted them and lost the golden opportunity of turning them into advantage for themselves. This third servant can also stand for any Christian who does not know how to make the gift of God he/she receives fruitful. At the end of life, such a Christian may be excluded or rather will exclude himself/herself from the Kingdom of God. At any rate, we are not to forget that to whom much is given, much “fruit” will be expected. And we Catholics have received from God much more than other Christians or people. What it means is that much will be expected from us.
The word of God in today’s liturgy challenges us to examine ourselves in several ways. Supposing God calls me today to give account of the talents he bestowed on me, will I be ready to furnish positive answers to the following questions? How do I utilise the gifts given to me? Do I even recognise all of them? Do I not waste them? Do I not leave a good part of them undeveloped and unfruitful? Do I utilise all the opportunity given to me to do good? Very important, do I faithfully fulfill the duties of my state in life, for example my duties as a husband, wife, father, mother, teacher, civil servant, politician, etc. or do I neglect them?
Finally we are not to forget the theme of vigilance in today’s reading, a regular theme in the gospels. The Lord, Jesus is certainly coming for the day of reckoning, but we do not know the time. What is more, it can come very suddenly. Paul reminds us of this in the 2nd reading of today: You will not be expecting us to write anything to you, brothers, about times and seasons since you know well that the Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. This day of the Lord may not come to us unprepared if we walk in the light of the Lord and if we always behave ourselves like the sons and daughters of light, which we really are through the supernatural virtues of faith and love which have been bestowed on us at our Baptism. The day of the Lord will not catch us unprepared if we are spiritually awake and live sober and honest lives. May we in this Eucharistic celebration pray to the good Lord for the graces we need to put the talents He bestows on us into good use so that they may bring abundant spiritual benefits for us and other people. Amen! Happy Sunday!
+John I. Okoye
(IMAGES BY BLOGGER)
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