November 16, 2014 – Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Prv 31: 10-13, 19-20, 30-31; Ps 128: 1-5; 1 Thes 5: 1-6; Mt 25: 14-30
“Well done my good and faithful servant.” With those words the master in Jesus’ Parable of the Talents smiles and rewards his servant. We often cite the Parable of the Talents in relation to stewardship. Because of our understanding of “talent,” we may assume that this is a parable about skills and those kinds of gifts.
Of course, in this case, a “talent” is a unit of money. Scholars assume that the master is wealthy; therefore, whether one received five talents, two talents, or one talent, they most likely received a huge amount of money according to our standards. That is not the stewardship perspective of this parable. Each of us, just as the three servants in the parable, has received multiple gifts from God (the Master). The question posed by Jesus, and the question we must be prepared to answer at our own judgment, is “What have you done with the gifts you have received?”
Everything we have and everything we become are gifts from God. Like the stewards in the parable, we have been given gifts. Do we develop those gifts and do we share them, or do we “bury” them and really do nothing with them? Those who do the former, return them with increase to the Lord, are not only complimented, but embraced and invited: “Come share your master’s joy.”
