November 19, 2023

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Our “Wake Up Call”

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

During the last days of the Church year, the liturgical readings and prayers focus on what the Catechism calls, the “last things:” death, judgment, heaven, and hell. These are presented for our reflection not to frighten us but to encourage us to be always ready and prepared. Last week, we heard the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins—a summons to vigilance. Today, St. Matthew presents the Parable of the Talents.

If this were parable about wealth management, it would be a poor one. The master was obviously a wise judge of his servants’ abilities, so why wouldn’t he simply entrust all his talents to the first servant who was the shrewdest? It would have been the most effective way to maximize his gains. It’s apparent that this master is not interested in accumulating wealth. Nor is he a good supervisor since he goes away for a long time, leaving the servants well-off and unsupervised.

So, this isn’t a lesson in wealth management. It has a different message. The Master is an image of God, who is lavish in his generosity, who gives his servants—that is to say, to us—gifts commensurate to our abilities. He is an image of God who trusts us and who leaves us free to make something of our lives. By giving each of us unique talents, he expects us to make something good of them. He expects what we might call, an “industrious responsibility.”

This requires our enthusiasm and a readiness to do good, realizing that one day will be our last, and on that day, we shall have to account for what we have done and what we have failed to do. We are reminded of this when we recite the Confiteor of the Mass. We shall want to hear the Lord say, “Come, enter the joy of your master.” In the book of Revelation, we read, “Blessed are those who die in the Lord for their good works accompany them.” We take nothing material with us when we leave this life. (Pope Francis has said, “You never see a moving van behind a funeral procession.”) We do take our good works.

A French missionary priest who worked in the leper colony, described a dream he once had: He found himself at the gate of heaven before the Lord. Extending his open hands to Jesus, he said, “Lord, look at my hands so beautifully clean.” Jesus looked at his hand and replied, “Yes, beautifully clean, but they are empty.” What shall we carry to the gate of heaven?

The first two servants are praised and rewarded because they made the right choices, they had the enthusiasm and readiness to use well the talents the Master entrusted to them.

But there is a third servant the Lord includes in this parable who has a lesson for us. He is a character governed by fear, a fear that paralyzes him. He sees only the Master’s severity, not his trust. His attitude is, “Better to do nothing that to do something wrong.” He has mistaken his master for a miser and so miserliness has mastered him. He did nothing even with the little he received.

God does not judge us by how much we have but by what we do with what we have. The Lord expects us to take what He has given us and build upon it, expand it, use it, and share it. He expects us to bless the lives of others through our gifts and, in so doing, bless our own lives.

Today’s parable is a warning to us not to fall in the trap of the third unpro- fitable, fearful servant. Fr. Luigi Maria Epicoco sums it up well:

“Those who build their lives on fear cannot enjoy anything, and they reap only emptiness…We need to ask ourselves how we can make good use of the time and the things the Lord has given us today. Otherwise, the same fate will befall us as that servant, who, intending to protect what he had, actually lost everything. Life is worthwhile only if we are willing to invest, to take risks for something great.”

And what is the greatest thing? Heaven! Mediocrity is banned from the Kingdom. And that is Our Lord’s “wake up call” today!