Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 13^th 2011)     

Matthew 25:14-30

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. The Parable of the Talents: Is it an exhortation to use our abilities better, or is it something different?

2. Do the talents refer to our own personal capacities, or to the spiritual goods that have been bestowed on us?

3. What is the problem with the relationship of the third servant to his master?

4. Is this a parable of the moralistic sort, that makes us feel wary of the demands placed on us by the Lord, or does it wish to emphasize the Lord's bounty?

The Parable of the Talents: Is it an exhortation to use our abilities better, or is it something different?

We are inclined to interpret the parable of the talents as being an exhortation to use one's own talents to the full. As we read the parable, we tend to feel a sense of obligation to use our own abilities better, and we feel guilty that we have used them so badly up to now. But if we read the parable carefully, we see that Jesus actually intends to speak about a different matter entirely. We are presented with three servants, one of whom has a wrong relationship with his master. Jesus wants to challenge us to reflect on the behaviour of this third servant and use it to reflect on our own relationship with God.

Do the talents refer to our own personal capacities, or to the spiritual goods that have been gifted to us?

The talents spoken of by this parable are often understood to symbolize human qualities, like intelligence or artistic ability. But there can be no doubt that Jesus actually intends them to refer to something else. A man leaves on a journey and entrusts his own property to the three servants. Therefore the story is not referring to the something that belongs to the servants, but to something that belongs to the master. This distinction is important if we wish to understand the relevance of this parable to the Christian life. What are the goods that we as Christians have received? The sacraments, the Word of God, the gift of the church community with which we share the faith, the gift of the Magisterium of the Church and leaders of the faith like the Holy Father, the possibility of receiving forgiveness for our sins, and - the greatest gift of all - the Holy Spirit that has been poured into our hearts. Once we reflect on the goods that have been entrusted to us, the parable begins to lose its moralistic air and instead becomes a meditation on the wonderful bounty of the Lord, and the joy that comes from receiving it well.

What is the problem with the relationship of the third servant to his master?

The problem with the third servant can be intuited from the things he says to his master. "Lord, I know you are a hard man, reaping where you do not sow and gathering where you have not scattered. I was afraid, and I hid your talent under the ground. You gave it to me and now I restore it to you. I did not take possession of that which you gave me. In fact, I don't think well of you at all. As far as I'm concerned, you are trying to entrap me and use me for your purposes. You want to make me do things that I don't want to do, so I keep your gifts at a distance from me, buried underground".

            The reason why many people do not progress in the faith is because they place themselves before God with the same identical attitude as this third servant. They feel that God is someone to be feared, someone to be kept at a distance. Their image of God is of someone demanding, someone who places excessive burdens on us. All of us share something of this third servant's attitude towards God. We feel that God is someone who basically wants something from us. But if we reflect on the behaviour of the master towards the first two servants, we see that this is not the correct way to view God at all. He gives them everything! Those servants used his property well and now he gives it to them to keep forever! He invites them to partake, not only of his possessions, but of his own joy and happiness.

A talent is not a demand placed on us, but an entrustment with something positive and beautiful

The talent that the Lord gives us, therefore, must not be viewed as a demand or burden placed by God on us, but as an entrustment with something positive and beautiful. We must open our eyes and appreciate this fact clearly! We must stop fearing that God might be asking something of us, and instead consider the paternal trust that the Lord is showing towards us. He is giving us the things that belong to him. He is placing life-giving trust in us. We did not ask for the gift of life but it was given to us, and it is God's great act of entrustment towards us. We can use it well or not.

            If life can be understood as a talent, then the faith is also a talent. There is no snare hidden within it with which the Lord wishes to entrap us. The suspicion that we have towards the Lord that he wishes to exploit us, that he wishes to use us as instruments for his own purposes, is completely mistaken. The Lord is not trying to ensnare us with his demands, but is entrusting us with his joyful bounty.

            What does it mean to be the parent of a child? It means to be entrusted by God with something positive and beautiful. Often people are fearful of becoming parents because they see it as a burden that will take away from their lives. But in reality it is something that will give even more life to them. To be a minister of the Church is to be entrusted by God with a special gift. Often ministers need to reflect on the fact that what they have been given is God's trust, not a wearisome task, and they need to live out that trust in the joyful awareness that God is with them.

The parable of the talents should not make us wary of the "excessive" demands of the Lord, but instead make us reflect on his enormous bounty

In short, we should not think that the Lord is making demands on us and that if we don't fulfil these demands we will get a slap on the wrist. Instead we need to see that the Lord is giving us his gifts and that the correct use of these gifts will lead to incredible joy. It is wonderful to live our faith; it is a wonderful thing to preach the Gospel; it is wonderful to bring the new generation up in the faith; it is great to forgive each other; it is marvellous to live according to the ways of the Lord. Let us leave behind this accursed attitude of suspicion towards the Lord! The words of this parable are indeed terrible towards the third servant, but these words must be interpreted in the light of what the servant lost as a result of his failure to accept and possess the gifts of the Lord. A talent in biblical times represented thirty-three kilos of gold. Therefore it represented riches on an immense scale, and points to an enormous generosity and trust on the part of the master that we would do well to make the most of.