A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.
Mt 25:14-30
EXPLANATION OF THE GOSPEL
This parable is connected with the Last Judgment (Mt 6:31ff). What is the reason behind this choice? We are approaching the end of the Liturgical Year. And with the end of the Liturgical Year also comes Advent. The theme at this time of the liturgical year is the Parousia, the second coming of Christ. The Last Judgment takes place at the Parousia.
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.
Talent here refers to a unit of money. Five talents would be about $6,600.00.
According to his ability. God is reasonable. He is considerate. He expects from us only what we are capable of. Even in terms of life’s challenges, God will not lead us where his grace can not keep us. In other words, God will not try us beyond our strength.
But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's money.
Burying in the ground was a way of securing valuables. Remember the Parable of the Buried Treasure? Especially in times of war, people buried their money and then escaped to safety. When the danger was over, they would return and dig up their money. Unfortunately, someone else might find it ahead of the owner. Or it can also happen that the owner dies and so the money lay buried until someone else finds it.
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.
If you cooperate with the grace of God, you will progress in your spiritual life. In the field of business, the one with more money is able to grow his business because he has more capital. With the growth in business, more money comes in.
But if you don’t cooperate, then you will certainly regress. It’s like the palo sebo. If you don’t keep on climbing, the grease on the bamboo pole will certainly make you slide down. If you don’t progress, you’ll regress.
And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
In the bible this is how the evil doers react when they see the just rewarded. Wailing and grinding of teeth expresses anger and sadness.
MAKING SOMETHING OUT OF YOUR LIFE
We are expected to do something with our lives. Another way of putting it would be: “Your life is God’s gift to you. What you do with your life is your gift to God.” In the same vein St. Iraeneus wrote: “The glory of God is a man fully alive.”
At the Last Judgment we would be asked: “What have you done with your life?”
But to be able to make something worthwhile with our lives, we need to get out of our comfort zone. We need to take risks. We need to overcome our fears. Some of our fears are:
- I might fail. Fear of failure.
- It’s too difficult. Fear of paying the price, that is, fear of working hard and making sacrifices.
At the time of Columbus, people thought that the earth was flat. If you took a boat and sailed far enough, your boat would fall off the earth. Columbus did not remain his comfort zone. He did not allow the fears of his contemporaries to pre-vent him from exploring the unknown. And because he left his comfort zone, he discovered the New World.
Many Filipinos leave their country and venture into strange lands in order to give their children a better future. To do that they had to abandon their comfort zone and face the unknown. Our word for that is ‘makipagsapalaran’, which mean taking your chances.
One of the reasons why we are unable to leave our comfort zone is because we are paralyzed by fear of failure. "I might fail because I might not be good enough to face the challenges I will meet out there." But precisely by leaving our comfort zone and taking our chances, we are forced to look at our inner resources in order to meet the challenges out there.
They say if you want to go into business, you must be strong. I know of a teacher who loved teaching. But with her children growing up, she realized she needed more money if she were to be able to send her children to top schools. The only practical option for her was to leave teaching. But teaching was what all she knew. But one day she finally decided to hand in her resignation papers. Then she ventured into business. It was only then that she realized that she had talent for business. And she did well. And she was able to send all her four children to the top universities.
Unless we leave our comfort zone, we will not be able to discover our strengths and yes, even our weaknesses. Unless we leave our comfort zone, we will not be able to achieve something better, something greater.
Our life is God’s gift to us. What we do with our lives is our gift to God. Let’s give great gifts to God.
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