A Master Who Is Generous

Does the parable in today’s gospel make you feel uneasy? Did it make you think about all you have been given and what use you have made of it? Did it make you wonder why some people have so much and others have so little?

If you did react in any of those ways, it is completely natural. That is why Jesus spoke in parables so frequently. He wanted to shake us out of our complacency. He wanted to challenge the way we look at ourselves, at the world and at God. He wanted to prod us into seeing reality the way that our Heavenly Father does so that we will change our lives accordingly. By their nature, parables are meant to leave us with more questions than answers.

The main point of today’s parable seems clear - we will be judged according to our use of the talents God has given us. But if we reflect closely on Jesus’ words there are some even deeper insights we can gain into the spiritual life and our relationship with God.

The first point is how generous God is.

In the parable, the king gives his servants five, two and one talents. In Jesus’ day, a talent was the largest denomination of money. It was reserved mostly for government transactions. Therefore, the king was not entrusting his servants with token amounts of money, but what would have been vast sums that could have potentially bankrupted him. The king himself was taking a risk in entrusting these talents to his servants.

In the same way that the king was generous in entrusting talents to his servants so our Heavenly Father is generous with His gifts to us. Before we ever can give an account of what we have done with His gifts, we first have to make an inventory of just how much He has given us. It all starts with the gift of life. None of us asked to be born. Our life and everything that goes along with it are a pure gift of God’s generous love.

We were then blessed to be born into a family of people who cared for us and nurtured us when we were at our most vulnerable. None of our families were perfect, but we would not be here if they did not care for us to the best of their abilities. It was in our families that we learned what true love was and how to nurture relationships with others. By having families of our own, many of us have passed that gift of life and love on to others, sharing in God’s creative love.

For most of us, the gift of faith would have been given to us through the witness of our families. They were the ones who had us baptized, who insisted that we attend Mass and live the values of the gospel until we were mature enough to see the truth and value of it for ourselves. That faith has been with us carrying us through the hard times and making our joy complete in good times.

Then we have our  individual abilities and gifts. We have skills, material wealth and prosperity, health, strength, vigor, charisma and other character traits that come naturally to us as part of our personality. Even physical beauty is a gift of God. All these traits can be put to use to build up God’s Kingdom. Along with life, family and faith they are entrusted to us so that we can do our Heavenly Father’s will.

When we consider all that God has given us, it will be natural for us to feel grateful. However, through the parable, Jesus wants us to take it one step further. He wants us to consider how we can put all those gifts to the service of God’s Kingdom. How can we make the world a better place, a place of welcome for the poor and vulnerable, a place of justice for the oppressed, a place of love for the rejected? He wants to challenge us to see our unique skills and abilities not as ways to build up our self-esteem but as means to build up His Church.

The second point of the parable is not only that God is generous but that His gifts to us are multiplied when we put them to use.

In the parable, the good servants were able to double their investments. Not only that, but the servant with the ten talents was given the talent of the lazy servant. In the same way, when we take the risk of sharing what we have with others, our total is not diminished but increased. In God’s calculus, the more we give, the more we have.

The best example of this is love. When I take the risk of loving another person I do not end up with less love to give away. Rather I experience the joy that comes with sharing my heart with another person and so I have the courage to take the risk again and again. As light grows stronger when it is passed from one candle to another, so the gift of love multiplies as we give it away.

The same is true of all God’s gifts, even material ones like food and money. Like the wicked servant in the parable, we may want to hold back out of fear. We may want to keep what we have buried so that we will not lose it. But in doing so we are only cheating ourselves of the other blessings God wants to shower on us.

God has blessed each one of us generously. Take some time this week to make an inventory of every blessing in your life. Ask God how He expects you to put them to use for His Kingdom. If we can respond generously and courageously to His will, we will find even more blessings flowing from His hand. Then, at our Master’s return, we can feel confident that we will enter into His joy.

Our Life Is On Loan To Us

Have you ever had someone entrust something precious to you? It could be a friend who asked you to watch his house while he was away on a trip, someone who let you borrow her car or a family member who lent you jewelry for a party you were going to.

How did you treat those precious articles which were entrusted to your care? Were you not even more careful with them than you would have been with your own property? When your friend came back from vacation, did you not make sure the house was even cleaner than when he left and the refrigerator was restocked with food? When you returned the car, did you not make sure it had a full tank of gas? And when you were done wearing the jewelry that you borrowed, did you not make sure to return it as soon as possible?

What would have happened if we did not take care of the things people lent us? What if the friend came home to find his house in disarray and furniture broken? What if we returned the car with dents in the fender and the gas needle on empty? What if we kept the expensive jewelry rather than return it? We would be showing our family and friends that we are not trustworthy. Not only would we ruin any possibility of being able to borrow those items again, but we would be damaging our relationships with those who are close to us. Our actions would show that we do not really value their friendship and have no respect for their property.

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the parable of some men who were given something precious to take care of - a vineyard. Jesus goes into great detail describing the lengths to which the owner went to build the vineyard - not only planting the vines but putting a hedge around it, digging out a wine press and building a tower. However, those he lent it to did not show as much care. Rather than appreciate that they were simply managing it until the owner returned, they began to see the vineyard as their own property. They believed they had a right to the produce and did not have to share anything with the one who sacrificed to build the vineyard in the first place. Even worse, they killed all those who came to claim the vineyard and its produce from them. The actions of the tenants were a  terrible insult to the landowner.

Jesus uses the parable to teach the religious leaders of His day a lesson. God had given them authority to teach the people the Law and to lead them in the ways of righteousness. However, they used that authority to create comfortable lives for themselves, to take advantage of others and to secure positions of power. Rather than serve the people, they served themselves. Now Jesus warns them that, unless they change, their authority will be taken away from them.

Jesus’ parable is not only meant for the religious leaders of His day, but for us who gather here to worship. What can we take away from His words? What has God entrusted to our care and how does He expect us to put it to use?

One gift we have all received from God is the gift of faith. We are here today because we believe. We have had an experience of the Heavenly Father’s love for us and His action in our lives. Faith is a pure gift. There is nothing we can do to earn it. All we can do is receive it with gratitude. However, this gift of faith is not given to us only so that we can have a comfortable life. Rather, it is given to us to share with others.

There are many in this world, including our family and friends, who do not have the light of faith to guide them. Rather than trust in God, they are consumed with fear and worry. Without the word of God to guide them, they are constantly making poor choices that ruin their relationships and their health. When they realize that they need to make a change in their lives, they have no idea whom to turn to for help. They are truly lost.

It is up to us who have this gift of faith to share it with others. We must always be willing to witness to them about what our faith means to us and how Jesus has changed our lives. It does not mean preaching to others about how wrong they are. Rather it is about showing through our kind words and actions that God has the power to change us for the better. It means putting away the fear that we will be judged or made fun of and sharing freely with others the power that comes when we put our lives in God’s hands.

Faith is a gift that God has entrusted to us, and He expects us to use it to help others.

Another gift we have received from our Heavenly Father is this parish community. Have you ever thought about our parish as a gift? We are here in this building today because of the sacrifices of generations of believers who came before us. They are the ones who donated their time to teach catechism. They are the people who sacrificed their savings to build this church brick by brick. We have inherited this beautiful parish from them. It has been entrusted to us to pass on to another generation of believers.

With this in mind we must ask ourselves, is our parish making a real and positive contribution to our neighborhood? Are we working hard to ensure that this vineyard which others have planted will continue to produce good fruit for years to come? Through our sacrifices, prayers and good works, will we be passing on a parish that is even more close knit, more faithful and stronger than the parish our parents entrusted to us? What can we do to make sure that happens?

We could go on and on describing all the gifts we have received from God and how He expects us to put them to use for His glory and for the good of those around us. God has given us the gift of faith and this parish community. He has entrusted them to our care. When He returns to collect them from us, what kind of shape will they be in? Will He find that we have put them to good use or will He find that we have neglected them? Will He find that we worked to serve others or that we used His gifts to make comfortable lives for ourselves? Those are questions we should be asking ourselves everyday if we want God’s continual blessings in our lives and if we want to be able to stand before Him on the day of our judgment secure that we will be returning in good shape what He lent to us.