Gospel: Mt. 25:14-30
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.'”
Homily
Investments are always a risk and the world is full of failed investments and failed investors. As I look on each week at the lotteries in the USA promising hundreds of millions to those lucky enough to win them, I realize that I will never be a millionaire because I do not buy lottery tickets. I am sure that I will never win one. There are always people who win lotteries however and so often the person has bought only one ticket. Those people are people who take a chance, they run the risk of losing whatever the price of the ticket is but because they run the risk they are richly rewarded.
The Gospel given to us for our meditation this weekend is about risk taking for the sake of gaining the Kingdom.
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The story we know very well. Three servants are given money to invest each according to his ability. They know that their master is “a very demanding person, harvesting where he did not plant and gathering where he did not scatter,” so they know what will happen to them if the money is lost. There is never any gain without risk however and so two of the servants take the risk and invest the money given to them. They make a profit for their master. They are promoted and invited to share in their master’s joy. The third servant is too calculating to take risks so he does nothing with the money and returns to the master exactly what he has been given. Because of his lack of initiative, he loses everything that he had.
Our faith tells us that we are called to share in the Kingdom of heaven; we do not see this Kingdom. No one has ever come back to tell us about it. To truly believe in the Kingdom, humanly speaking, is to take a tremendous risk. It is to invest time, energy, feelings in the pursuit of something that we cannot see or touch or feel. It is to invest in justice and peace and selflessness and love. In a lot of ways the idea is very attractive but is the Kingdom any nearer now than it was two thousand years ago? The number of martyrs worldwide seems to be increasing. All the efforts at development seem to have failed. There is increasing hunger in the world, Here in Trinidad and Tobago murders continue to rise; crimes against children are too prevalent. The list can go on and on.
It is far more attractive to invest in making plenty money, in power in pleasure. We see those things. They appear to be so much more real than this Kingdom that Jesus spoke about. They are a safer bet. Many persons do indeed take the safer bet!
Today however the Gospel tells us that if we take the risk; if our belief in Jesus lets us invest in the values of the Kingdom our reward will be enormous.
Today we remember and thank God for people who have taken the risk, our world is better because of them. We remember Rosa Parks, who invested, at great cost to herself, her energies to obtaining equality for her people. We remember Nelson Mandela and his years in prison investing his time and energy to creating a South Africa in which all, blacks and whites could experience that they belong.. We remember Teresa of Calcutta investing time and energy to giving those dying on the streets a sense of their dignity as sons and daughters of God. And we remember all the not so famous ones, our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, friends, who dedicate their lives to making this world a better place for us. They are all risk-takers, believing the promise of God that one day they will have their reward.
And so the Gospel today confronts us. Are we risk takers for the Kingdom or are we like the third servant, calculating the risks involved and hedging our bets. When we act that way we lose it all. May the graces of this Sunday help us to be risk-takers for the Kingdom.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God we thank you for the risk-takers in our lives. For parents who took the risk of bringing us into this world and who continued to risk through, mortgages and loans so that we could get a good education. We thank YOU for honest politicians who risk their political futures for the sake of their countries. We thank you Father for those who risk so that your Kingdom will come into being here on earth. Increase our faith in your promise, so that we will not bury the talent that you have given to us but rather we will take the risk knowing that the reward will be greater than our own energies can give. We ask this through Christ, our Lord and Mary our mother. Amen
