THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF YEAR "A"

THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF YEAR 1     

Mt. 25, 14 - 30: Talents

            Mark Twain said, “October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in the stock market. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.” In other words, every month is risky. The apostles of Jesus must have looked upon their Leader as a most impractical fellow. He had managed a small carpentry shop in Nazareth to provide for his mother and self. Then sold it when he began his ministry and left the money to his mother. Where he was concerned, he never seemed to take a thought for tomorrow. He lived in a beautiful house without doors, windows, walls and roof. He kept his money inside a fish, yes, a fish. Since he was Jewish, he didn’t keep a piggy bank. So when the revenue officer came knocking on his metaphorical door, Jesus threw a line, pulled up his fishy bank and paid up. He acted as if that was the most natural place to look for coins. He was hardly equipped to work in the real world of business and finance.

At that point, the Teacher unloaded a mega bomb on his disciples. He spread the Parable of the Talents on them, his last parable before his assassination.  So, you can assume it was a big one in his mind. The first thing the apostles learned was that their penniless employer was pretty smart about finances, savings bank and tax free investments. They received a valuable insight into the forever unfolding mosaic that is Christ. However sinful you are, you cannot help being fascinated by Jesus; his ongoing charm for millions in the East and West.

So, today’s parable is about top dogs and fat cats leaving their assets in the hands of brokers while they fled the winter to play in the sun. The wealthy man of this parable parcelled his dollars out to three agents. The first two smart alecks ran off to a stock broker and doubled the dollars by buying blue chip stocks. The third man ran scared. This wimp didn’t want to risk a bad mouthing from the boss. So he buried the negotiables among the daffodils. He didn’t have the gumption to put the cash in a savings bank to draw the measly 4.5%. Then the chief returns sun-tanned from his run in the sun, and demands to see his profits. Very pleased with the first two beaming broncos, he rewards them handsomely. Then he beats up the third fellow who was still blowing the dust off the dollars he had hidden in the mud, and calls him names which I cannot repeat here. I leave that to your imagination.

My dear friends, here is a new dimension of Christ. He is a gambler. Christianity without pluck is Christianity without the beef, so to say. God encourages us to plunge into life and run the risk of proving we can be venturesome, enterprising and faithful.

Consider the 2^nd. reading of today. The Thessalonian Christians were very excited about the 2^nd. coming of Jesus, which they thought was imminent. St. Paul had to calm them down. But now-a-days Jesus Christ plays little or no role in the lives of many Christians. There is no sense of urgency in their lives, no expectation that God’s power can break in any moment of their lives. The presence of sin and evil in the world shows that God’s final victory is yet to happen. There is something to hope for, something that we believers need very deeply. We must maintain a lively faith and an enthusiastic hope. “Who does God’s work will get God’s pay.”

 Consider the description of the wife in the first reading. She spends herself for her husband’s sake.  Read it as a description of the spouse in whom Christ himself delights, this final poem from the Book of Proverbs comes alive. Not only is the gift of wisdom picked up from last week’s Gospel, but eagerness and industry, magnanimity and generosity are highlighted as some of the hallmarks in which the husband rejoices. The wife here stands for the Church, the bride of Christ. How Jesus must thrill to see his Church set her hands to the cause of the kingdom in every age, and her fingers grasp the issues that grip humanity at this turning-point in history. For better for worse, the Church is the wife in whom Christ’s heart has confidence.

The tragedy of the man who buried his talent in the ground lies in the lame excuse: “I was afraid.” Fear is the enemy of faith, because its focus is turned inward. Its centre of gravity is self rather than God. The third servant was as tightly wrapped up in himself as that talent he had wrapped so carefully in that napkin.

One fine morning the late good Pope John XXIII got up from bed and told his secretary he was going to call an ecumenical council. Secretary counselled caution. Pope John answered: “You haven’t yet shed yourself. You’re still concerned with the impression you make.” And our present Holy Father champions a Church that refuses to be intimidated by the prophets of gloom, or engaged in a rearguard action. Instead, the Church trades confidently with the talents which have been given her on trust. Those who counsel caution might as well bury their heads with their talent. The aim of every Christian is to say, before the undertaker shuts us down, “I have given life of my best.” My dear friends, what you are is God’s gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.

What good is the Good News if we keep it ourselves?

Christ’s message—the Good News of compassion, of mercy, of justice, of hope— is meant to be lived. It is meant to be shared. It is meant to be spread to others.

Are we doing that? Or are we too frightened of what that might involve?

Again and again, we hear in the gospels these simple words: “Do not be afraid.” In this parable, we see the consequences of being afraid.

But the call to live the gospel is a call, in fact, to be fearless.

In St. Matthew’s Gospel, this passage is the final parable before The Passion, the last lesson. As the master gave talents to his servants, Christ gives this one last parable to his followers. Jesus is pointing toward the last chapter of his earthly life—and, really, the last chapter of ours. His final advice: use what you have and make more.

Make everything I’ve told you matter.

This message is about using time—and it is timely.  All this month, we have been reminded: life has its limits. We began November by honoring all saints and all souls. Every day here in this parish, we have been remembering our beloved dead. We announce their names at Mass. We see this open book here by the altar and recall those we have lost—parents, friends, neighbors, children. This gospel looks at the sum of our life’s work and asks, “What have you done with the time you’ve had?” It stands as a challenge to us— a call to live with purpose. To use what we have been given. Because there will be a reckoning. We have to give an accounting.

I think of that moment at the end of “Saving Private Ryan,” where the dying captain looks into the eyes of Private Ryan—a young man for whom so many had sacrificed so much. And the captain whispers with his last breath, “Earn this.”

Earn this.

Jesus gave his life for our salvation. We can’t possibly give as much back in return. But we can make what we do matter. We can carry Christ into the world. We can love others as Christ loved us.

We can spend our days trying to live out the gospel we heard at the beginning of this month: the Beatitudes. Being people who are merciful. Who hunger and thirst for justice. Who are peacemakers.

We can make of our lives—with whatever God has given us—gifts.

We can make them works of art.

Eric Fischl managed to sum up a powerful idea about talent—and, without realizing it, about Christian love.

The fact is that each of us is called to create something beautiful and new with what we have been given.

And each of us has to give it away. To let it go. To use the “talent” in our hands and in our hearts.

In the end, that is what makes a masterpiece.

PRAYER (Timothy Dudley-Smith)

O God, whose wisdom has set within our hearts the quest for know- ledge and trusteeship in the natural world, teach us to use all science, invention and technology not to hurt but to heal, not to destroy but to build, not to divide but to unite your human family in prosperity and dignity together. And let not our knowledge outstrip our wisdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord.                    

GOD’S WORKERS

Who does God’s work, will get God’s pay,

However long may seem the day,

However weary be the way.

Though powers and princes thunder “Nay!”

No human hand God’s hand can stay;

Who does His work will get His pay.

God hurries not, nor makes delay;

Who works for Him will get His pay

Some certain hour, some certain day.

He does not pay as others pay,

In gold, or land, or raiment gay,

In goods that perish and decay.

But God’s high wisdom knows a way,

And this is sure, let come what may,

Who does God’s work will get God’s pay.

St. Thomas’ Church, Calcutta,

Sunday 17^th. November 2002