33rd SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME

 

Readings: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
                1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
                Matthew 25:14-30

 

 

"To everyone who has, more will be given…”

 

 

Our gospel today is about the Parable of the Talents. One of its features is the end-time scenario. Again, although the hour or the day is uncertain, the Lord is surely to come. Upon his return, he makes justice out of the talents he entrusted to each one. If the five virgins Sunday's parable were wise as to keep their lamps burning, happy will also be those trustworthy servants who made use of their talents fruitfully. But if the other five virgins were that foolish and irresponsible, woe to that servant too who mindlessly set his talent aside. The day of reckoning will then be a day of justice. And it is here that the gospel message rotates. Let us meditate on the following points.

 

1. The parable seems to establish first and foremost that this world is full of diversity, and human beings do share in this diversity in many different ways. Until now, perhaps, man has not yet been satisfied with the reality he sees around him. It still becomes a valid question for him why some are good looking while others are not, why some are genius while others are idiot, why some are rich while others are poor, etc. “God must be so unjust,” man sometimes think!

 

But far from being unjust, the parable carries with it a silent wisdom trying to whisper into our ears that God is simply the God of diversity. The many variations in his creation are just apart of his divine plan, the totality of which he alone knows perfectly well. These diversity and variations are intended not to dismay and frustrate man, but to give taste and color to his existence Think. What will happen to a world where all that we see are nothing else but flowers? Even the most manly would be tempted to be more "womanly"! What will happen to us had we looked perfectly alike? We could be as handsome and as ugly at the same time. Or, could we even think of what is handsome or ugly in the first place? What will happen had all of us been equally rich, equally genius, equally possessing the same gifts and talents? Surely, we could be equal too. But could we not also be equally sad?

 

2. It belongs to the divine wisdom, therefore, that we must not be perfectly alike, that our gifts and talents must vary in different degrees, just according to the disposition of our very own diversity. "It will be as when a man who was 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.”

 

As God dispenses his talents to each one, he has no second thoughts whatsoever nor does he anticipate future regrets. All that God seems to have is trust and hope that each one will just be responsible enough to make positive use of his given talents. And this is so because he also perfectly knows our individual capacities. He knows each one can do it. He was the one who gave us our capacities, on the first place. So, as God can never give a person a problem, which he cannot solve, so too can God not give any talent, which is beyond the capacity of the person to use and develop. Here, there can never be any discrepancy between in-puts and out-puts.

 

This is why the parable seems clear that God does not expect more than what he really gives. The master was so satisfied with his first and second servants. The first servant given with five talents came with another five; the other with three talents made another three. The servant with five did not come up with another six or seven, or the one with three made another four or five. Five from five; three from three. By being definite, the parable wants to say that man is not expected to produce beyond his capacity.

 

But how about producing lesser? Does God allow it?

 

The parable seems silent about it. The five-from-five and the three-from-three seem to suggest that God does not expect us to produce lesser, either. But considering God's immeasurable love and mercy, we have every good reason to believe that God surely gives his allowance and understanding to a frail man. If we recall Abraham's seemingly endless petition, he started with fifty and ended up with ten. And by God's relentless mercy, he was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah just for the sake of ten innocent people (cf Gen 18; 16-33). Similarly, perhaps God can readily accept us if out of our five talents, we make only four or three; or out of three, we make only two or one.

 

What God could not allow is when we are not able to make anything at all. Such case would be unforgivable. This is practically what is told to us by the servant who hid his talent and returned it with no more and no less. Again, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because there were not ten innocent people there. Similarly, no one can stop God's righteous anger befalling upon an irresponsible and carefree servant.

 

3. The message of the parable is therefore clear. Christ comes despite a long delay, just as the master comes one day after a long journey elsewhere. The coming of Christ is a day of justice, a day reckoning, a day of finding out whether or not we had been responsible enough with the gifts God has blessed us with. Our responsibility consists in developing our gifts, in producing more, in being fruitful, in being productive. And our irresponsibility consists in just exactly the opposite of it: when we simply bury our gifts, when we set them aside in an insignificant corner where no one could see, when we do not care at all about them and opt to be fruitless and useless. And when that happens, the gift of the irresponsible will even be taken and given to the responsible. What a sad fate to the irresponsible, yet a double fortune to the responsible!

 

Finally, what really count are the doing of our share and the doing of it by heart. What the kingdom needs is to produce more godly fruits, and this can happen when we do our share. Doing it means effort, courage and at times, pain. But that, as we know, may be the most effective way of bearing fruits, of producing, of multiplying. The bread and fish upon a time became many because there was a hand that broke them and gave them. It was a painful process, yet rewarding. At the end-time, a similar meal shall be prepared where the master of the house himself tie his belt and recline at table together with the men and women who did their share in producing more talents (cf Lk 12:37-38).

 

Thus, whether we are better looking or uglier than others, whether we are richer or poorer, whether we are more or less intelligent, etc., all these differences are secondary, if not immaterial. (But of course, it would be at our greater advantage if we were intelligent, rich and better looking! Would it not?)