Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for November 13, 2005
Liturgical Year A-Cycle I
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. John Carney
Topic: What have we done with our talents?
+  +  +

Jesus told his disciples this parable: "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. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two.  But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's money.

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.' Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, 'Master, you gave me two talents.  See, I have made two 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.' Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said,  'Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.  Here it is back.' His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter?  Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?  Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.  For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before I talk about the Gospel this morning, I want to share something with you.  Tom Keenan read the first reading, Proverbs 31:10 - 13. Of course, his wife is sitting right there.  Tom said, "When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.  Her husband in trusting his heart to her, has an unfailing find”, and he looked at her, and she just smiled.  That's a good moment.  Everyone around them knew what was going on.
 
Now for some hard talk.  This Gospel, I'm sure the first time you heard it, troubled you.  Perhaps, it even troubles you this morning.  The story is a simple one and clearly the master is God and the servant, well, that's us.  The master gives a sum of money, to three of his servants.  The two that invest well and are given a return, he's delighted with them.  But the one who does not invest it, who is afraid to use this power and to increase it is thrown out in the darkness where he grinds his teeth;a clear reference to hell.  It troubles us.  One reason is fundamentally, literally, it troubles us because it makes God look like a shylock or an Uncle Scrooge.  We need to look into this message to see what Jesus is telling us.  Remember, these are the words of Jesus, so they're important for us to understand. 
 
Here is just a little bit of background.  A talent was a measure of precious metal. Most scholars think that the master had given each of the servants 6,000 denari, which is equivalent to about 20 years wages for a laborer.  Depending on what laborers make, in today's market, we'd say that one talent is between 600 and 800 thousand dollars.  They gave one-man five talents, one two and one, one.  He gave them, even the man with one talent, a very large sum of money to be invested.  But still, it makes no sense if we think this is about money, because it's not.  The talent is a symbol for our faith-based gifts that God has given to each one of us.  To the one who has received the fewest gifts, he or she has an enormous amount of talent to be used and invested for God's reward.  It is not about money.  It's about our gifts, our faith. It is saying very clearly, and this is again Jesus speaking, it is saying that it is not enough to have faith; it is what you do with it that counts.  We will be held accountable. 
 
Remember his words, “You wicked, lazy servant." The older version, I prefer it, said, "you worthless, lazy, lout." These are harsh words. There are a lot of hard words in the Gospel.  I don't know when it happened, but we have sifted out the hard stuff so that on Sunday, it seems to me, that the purpose of many churches is to give everyone a feel-good-about-yourself message.  I don't know when that happened, because that's not the Bible I've been reading.  It is challenging to be a Christian.  It is easy enough not to break the Commandments.  That's not the deal.  It is much harder to live the demands of the Gospel, and that's what this Gospel is about today.
 
Throw this worthless servant out into the darkness where he can wail and grind his teeth." Everyone has talents.  We are not equal in talents, but we are all called to be equal in our efforts in using our talents.  The question posed to you and to me today, is what has been done with the talents that God gave you?  Do you live a life that is useful to the Lord?  God expects that we live our lives investing our faith in everything that we do, hoping to gain a return for him.  We are not to sit back and wait for the rapture.  The point is that we are active participants in our own salvation, not passive recipients.  Not only our own salvation, but also we are called as Christians, to be active participants in the salvation of the world, of our communities, our families, the entire world.  Really, when you think about it, that says a lot about what God thinks about us.  God has entrusted the work of salvation to us. He provides 100% of the grace, but he makes us co-laborers, co-workers with him in his holy work.  It is true, and the analogy of this parable, that God has invested himself in us, in you and me.  Literally, that's what happens on this altar.  He invests His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in you, and me.  The idea is that when we leave this church, I stay here, but you leave, and go out in that world and change it.  You are armed with the nourishment of the Eucharist, enlightened by his word.  That's what we're doing here today.  Again, not to be passive recipient of salvation, but to be active participants in it.
 
I have heard people say, "Look at this world, it is such a mess." How can God let this happen?"  God didn't let it happen. We let it happen.  If everyone used their God given gifts in service to one another, and for God's glory, this world would not be a mess.  As a matter of fact, the kingdom might come, because his work might be finished on earth.  This world is a mess, because we are not using our talents, we are sitting back taking care of just ourselves, not using the talents that God has given us. 
 
There will be a reckoning.  There will be a judgment.  I have said that many churches have taken the hard part of the Gospel out to give a feel good message.  It is very interesting, if you notice in the Gospel today, if you look in the Lectionary or in the book, you see those black brackets.  There is a short version that the Priest or Deacon can read.  The short version takes away all the bad stuff, all the hard part.  It just says the master came back to the guy with five who had made ten and he said, "Oh well done"and it drops the whole idea of judgment.  The editor perhaps wanted us to be able to give you a comfortable message.  That's not what Jesus said at all, is it?  He would never have given a description of the man that doubles his money if he did not want to point out the one who hid his talents.
 
There will be a reckoning, a judgment.  We will be judged on how well we use the gifts God has given us.  You know when we use our gift; there is a risk involved.  You know the fellow that buried the treasure was not punished because he failed, he was punished because he was afraid to use the gifts he had, the talents he had.  Some people are afraid to use their faith.  They think there is not much of it and they'll lose it.  Just the opposite happens. The more you use it, the more you get.  Others fear rejection.  They want to say, "Why don't you come to church with me?" But they don't want to be ridiculed and mocked if the person says no.
 
At the judgment, what will you hear?  What will I hear?  "You wicked lazy servant”, or “Well done.  Come. Share your master's joy." We can decide that.  It's not a matter of happenstance.  We choose the judgment.  God doesn't really judge us, we judge ourselves.  I know I speak for everyone here when I say today; we choose to use our gifts to serve each other for God's glory.  We all want to hear those beautiful words, “Well done.  Come.  Share your master's joy."
 
If you would bow your heads, we'll pray. 
 

Close