A Cycle –3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 26
Mt. 25:1-14-30
In today’s parable uses a familiar item, a coin, to provide us with a rich image of something much more profound than money. Jesus once He provides the parable, He specifically tells us the servants are given ownership of his money according to each servant’s ability.” That statement alone should make us realize what God expects of us is not the same, but our actions are the same. Let me make that clearer by comparing what God expected of each disciple was the same while we know their individual impact on building the Kingdom of God was very different.
Each according to his ability. Ability, skill, capability, and training are among the attributes needed to accomplish the task given to each servant and to us. This parable should have resonated with His audience because the Pharisees and religious leaders had taught them to depend on sacrifices and offerings. Maintaining a relationship based on fear and avoiding offending God. Pleasing God was satisfied by showing up on the required days and not on building the kingdom of God. We accept the fact that all of us have differing abilities such as mechanical skills, financial skills, conceptual skills, leadership skills and differing confidence and courage to embrace a task we have never attempted.
Have you ever considered the various “talents” on display in this parish each time we come to celebrate the Pascal Mystery? Different tasks by individuals who use them flawlessly as they accomplish the task assigned to them. Each according to their ability but could God be calling them to do more or something they have never considered. It is obvious some of us should never volunteer to cantor a mas or become a lector. But what we do we have concluded we do add to the common good of our parish. But how many within our parish have never considered they have nothing to add to the common good of this community. We fail to understand God has gifted each person with something for the “good of the church” 1 Cor,12:13). What we fail to realize is our ability to multiply the gift we must understand it is a gift of the Holy Spirit within us that reveals and activates the gift God has implanted within us at our conception.
This parable is about us embracing and using our gifts to serve our parishes. It is a lesson about discipleship not talents. If you watched the Chosen Series, there is one episode that reveals a deeper meaning of this parable. That event happened early in the disciple’s transformation from average believing Jews into instruments of God’s grace. It happened when Jesus commissioned them to go out “two by two” and heal the sick, give sight to the blind and proclaim the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Their reaction was so human. They were very vocal in their inability to do what Jesus was asking them to do. What Jesus told them to do was impossible for them to do. Imagine putting yourself in front of a leper and proclaiming him healed. Imagine yourself in front of a lame man and telling his to stand up and walk. It was task that was inconceivable. Yet Jesus told them to go out and not to carry anything, no money, no advance preparation for accommodations. Expect to be rejected but ignore all of that and go, because He gave them all they needed to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit with them.
You might be thinking “what has that to do with us, they were called to discipleship” we are not. We have failed to grasp what God created us to become. We do not understand because we have not been taught from the moment of our conception God has gifted each of us to achieve something to advance the Kingdom of God. The palmist expresses that fact during a beautiful prayer about God’s knowledge of our thoughts, hopes, and desires. The palmist reveals a spiritual truth about us and reveals God ordained our conception and has a plan for each of us. Listen to the wisdom of God proclaimed to us by King David: “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (Ps.139:16). Another version says, “in your book is written every one of my days and the good deeds you have planned in advance.” King David concludes psalm 139 by saying “you know my anxious thoughts” (vs.23) and “if there is a path for my life lead me” (vs.24).
It cannot be clearer; we need to stop choosing our own path and search God’s path for our lives. Use the talents God has implanted within us and that means we must acknowledge we have to embrace those talents and begin to use them. The apostle Paul is a great example of choosing our own path verses embracing God’s plan for our lives. We must like Saul answer the question God is presenting each of us in this parable. Why have we buried the talents God has given us and believe we can continue doing something God will reward us for doing?
Paul echoes the psalmist when he acknowledges to the Ephesians: “we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus for the good works He has prepared in advance that we should live in them (Eph. 2:10). The talents Jesus is talking about is not money it is the “giftedness” we were endowed with as we were conceived in our mother’s womb. The problem is we never think about those endowed gifts given to us by God. We have decided for ourselves what our gifts are and offer them to the Church. The church thanks you and appreciates your talents and is vibrant because of them but what God has gifted you with perhaps is unused and not achieving the purpose God intended.
For most of us that giftedness is to make disciples of your immediate circle. Have an impact on others who believe but have not encountered Christ. I am reminded on one woman who was coming to me for spiritual direction. She had encountered Christ and was growing in her ability to recognize God’s voice. Her husband would “roll his eyes” each morning as she immersed herself in the scriptures. She was concerned about alienating hm and wondered if she should wait until he leaves for work before reading the scriptures. She was advised not to do this in secret but continue to read and understand the scriptures talk about an unbelieving spouse being consecrated by a believing wife. Today that man is more zealous in his following Christ than she was. He reads the scripture and is visible in his witness and uses his talents for the good of his parish. Jesus said to let our lights shine. Let it shine in your homes and let it touch your children, your spouse, your siblings, your friends, and your fellow employees.
