Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 19, 2023: Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.

Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more...

Are we ready to invest the gifts God has given us? 

    As Jesus approached the end of his life on earth, it was essential to him that he prepare his disciples for the new age that was to come. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus shares with his disciples the parable of the talents, in which a man gives each of three servants a sum of money, expecting that they will invest and increase it. Two of the three do so; the last, however, buries his master’s money in the ground, earning no interest whatsoever on what might have been an easy investment. 

    The parallels in the life of the disciples must have been obvious to them. The faith and insights the disciples have been given through Jesus have already made them spiritually rich. Revelation is a gift; if they recognize this, the disciples will share it; they will invest it in the service of others, proclaiming the good news. Everyone who has received revelation from God and accepted it becomes a conduit through which more revelation will come. Like the woman in the Book of Proverbs whose industry is a service to her community and whose works praise her at the city gates (she is a fruitful vine, in the words of Psalm 128), the disciples must invest the gifts God has given them for the benefit of others, putting these gifts at the service of others. 

   God gifts each of us with many blessings, most notable among them a capacity of heart that allows us to open in love to others; God has also given us light, and it is our responsibility to share that light, as Paul reminds the Thessalonians: you are children of the light and children of the day. It is up to us to let that light be a revelation to all. To do so, we must stay alert and sober, ever conscious that blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways! God has infinite hope in us; God invests in us God’s perfect love, infinitely. We have but to remain faithful to the gifts and talents with which we ourselves are blessed, that all might be blessed, through us, by the infinite love of a God who invests everything in each of us. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com