Word to the Wise
Sunday, November 19, 2023 - 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Prov 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1 Thess 5:1-6; Matt 25:14-30 or 25:14-15, 19-21 ,35]"A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one - to each according to his ability. Then he went away....After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come share your master's joy." [Matthew]
I think we would all like to hear, at the end of life or at the end of time, the words: "Well done, good and faithful servant....Come, share your master's joy!" But that means we have to pay attention to the rest of the parable! It is not easy, in an individualistc society like ours, to think that our lives are not our own to do with as we please without any accountability to anyone. God can seem rather remote - "away on a journey." But our lives are not our own. We are given a great trust and challenged to do something with it -"Each according to his own ability." We do not have to compete with the others who may seem to have received "more." We just have to do the best we can with what we have been given. We are "stewards" of our lives. "As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace." [1 Peter 4:10]
We are, therefore, not like single atoms. We are part of the Body of Christ and are linked to one another in faith by baptism. The "talents" of others and our own are meant to be shared for the good of the whole. The parable that follows the one in today's gospel scripture from the Gospel According to Matthew, is the parable of the Last Judgment. [Matt. 25:31-45]. There we receive a standard of stewardship, as it were. Whatever good we do for one another, we do for the Lord!!
It can be a difficult thing to look back over our lives and ask how we have used our "talents" or "gifts" for others, but that is the challenge we have received. We can be motivated by a desire to hear the words: "Well done, good and faithful servant...Come, share your Master's joy!" AMEN