I don’t know if you’ve been to Kenrick-Glennon Seminary since it was remodeled a few years ago. If you have, you may have noticed how clean, bright, and updated everything feels. Back in the old days, when I was a seminarian, the building had all of the characteristics of a structure dating back to 1930. It was unevenly heated by a massive boiler and an army of clanging radiators. Some doorways and stairwells led to classrooms and student rooms while others stopped abruptly, walled off to satisfy the fire marshal. The thing I picked up on right away as a new student was the chiaroscuro lighting. Because you were living in a building with 7 decades of different light fixtures and technologies, there were areas of light and darkness everywhere. Especially at night! As a prankster, one of my favorite activities as a new arrival was to hide in a dark hallway, behind a pillar or next to a life-size statue of Jesus and jump out as someone walked by. Endless laughs for me and near-cardiac arrest for my fellow seminarians. I quickly stopped this practice for two reasons: 1) My frightened comrades were saying things that would make a sailor blush, much less a future parishioner and I was directly responsible. 2) Fellow seminarians didn’t want to walk down the hallway if they thought I was anywhere nearby. I was the feared jerk who would keep people from relaxing on their way back to their room. Not exactly the reputation I wanted to earn!
I thought of this memory listening to these parables and warnings from Jesus about the end of time and his return. Too often we’ve interpreted the Lord’s words as if he were the Divine Jerk, lurking in the shadows, just waiting to jump out and scare us at the worst possible time. For many, the end of the world and the return of Jesus are a nightmare, something to be dreaded and put out of our mind if possible. With this mindset, it would be easy to view today’s parable as unfair and awful. A poor servant, entrusted with one of the master’s talents, decides to play it safe and buries it in the ground. While it doesn’t gain anything, nothing is lost either. From this perspective, the master’s response of taking away the talent and throwing out the servant is harsh. But is there something we are missing in this picture? Is God really this vindictive and ruthless?
Let’s start by understanding what exactly a talent is in the sense Jesus uses. Today we hear that word and we think of a capacity or skill like playing a musical instrument, being able to paint, or some other gifted ability. The people of Jesus’ time would have heard something different. A talent was a unit of measurement of about 80 pounds of silver or gold. In today’s terms, one talent was worth about $1.25 million, far more than the lifetime earnings of a standard worker in Palestine. The master generously entrusts his treasures to his servants, not equally, but as Scripture tells us, according to their abilities. But even the servant who has one, has more than he could ever earn on his own throughout his lifetime. This is an important detail to keep in mind.
The first two servants get right to work with the master’s treasure. They are not afraid of losing anything and all they can think about is making him proud, making his riches grow even more. They are motivated by love. We don’t know how they accomplish the growth but that’s not the point. The important thing is that they take the gift they were given and they use it in loving service to produce even more riches for the generous and trusting master. There is no hesitating in their decision, nor are they nervously looking over their shoulders for the Lord’s return. They simply fulfill the obligations of an honorable servant and the rest falls into place.
Contrast this with the behavior of the third servant. He is terrified of the master. Even though he has been entrusted with a lifetime of wealth, which he could never earn himself, he wants nothing to do with it because of fear. Instead of thinking how he can make this fortune grow, even in the smallest of ways, he buries it. What an insult to the master’s trust and generosity! To take a lifetime of earnings and do nothing with it! This is what offends and enrages the master more than anything else. That his servant does not love him and squanders his generous opportunity is worse than any loss from a bad investment.
So what is Jesus saying to you and me in this story that is directed at us just as much as it was to his audience 2000 years ago? First and fundamental is the fact that we have all been entrusted with the talents, the treasures of God. Not in what we are able to do like speak many languages, play the piano, or design a perfect house. No, we hold the treasure of God in who we are, in his image and likeness which we could never earn for ourselves, even after a lifetime of the most clever, productive work. And the moment each and every one of us was baptized, God shared a piece of himself, his life, which we call sanctifying grace, to our care. That is the talent given to every Christian and it comes with a simple order to make it grow. God’s love is not meant to be used only for our benefit or buried out of fear. It is intended to be invested in the world around us to grow, to spread, to multiply many times over through works of service, sorrow for our sins, and genuine prayer.
If we are terrified of God, if we are constantly looking over our shoulder for him to jump out and zap us, we will bury his gift of love. Fear will cause the treasure within us to become stale and lifeless. It will not grow or help anyone nor will it please the Lord. Today’s parable tells us, in no uncertain terms, how God feels about those who waste his gift of grace.
On the other hand, those who love God, serve Him with everything at their disposal. They are his servants 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, Quite frankly, they don’t care when he comes back because they are always looking for ways to grow his love in their heart and in his world.
So where are we? Has the gift of God’s love and life grown in us since our baptism? Are we actively seeking ways to grow that love in our life each and every day. If Jesus were to return tomorrow, would we be panicking and trying to hurry up and make it look like we were living for him? Or would we be ready, excited to share with him the growth we helped happen with the gifts given to us. Be that person! Be that servant who loves the Master every day so you can hear those beautiful words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master's joy”!
