TEXT: The Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew 25:14-30

The message that Jesus proclaims to the Church and the world today is clear for the hearers of this message that desire to become doers of the words of Jesus.  The message is not like the "muddied waters" of the flood of waters from the dragon’s mouth that pursue the Woman of Revelation 12, as she flees into the desert place to the place prepared by God for her.

No, we have the clear teaching of Jesus concerning what actions and attitudes will send us to Hell, or, be the proof of who we really are as the "new creation" we are to become in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17).

The parable sets the stage and Jesus is the subject.  He is the man who goes on the journey.  What will the servants do in his absence?  Only we may each answer that question in our own contexts.  Let us hear the words of God.

14  "For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property;
15 to one he gave five talents,  to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more.
17 So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more.
18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

We begin with what appears to be an uneven distribution.  I have heard some say that this was an "unfair" distribution, because the one who hid his talent wanted to preserve it from losses.  Yes, there is an uneven distribution, but each one of the servants had at least ONE Talent.  The talents that were given, were actually worth large sums of money, as one talent represented about 100 pounds of silver, a rather large amount even for today’s standards.

There is a serious issue at hand.

I know of a person who spent their entire life for the selfish purpose of saving up for their retirement.  They did nothing for anyone else but SAVE money in order to make their lives (old age) as comfortable as possible.  They thought little of the poor around them.  They had the best health insurance, the best life insurance, the best retirement plan, the best land investments, all that anyone could prepare for to make their old age secure and good.

One problem occurred, as is so often the case.
The person was stricken with cancer and died.  They enjoyed little to nothing of their best laid plans.

Think of it?  A life that was entirely spent on self - indulgence and fear of the future, so, they hid their money in the ground and let it await their best plans only to see their best plans come to NOTHING.

Blessed Escriva says -- "A person’s Christian calling should not lie hidden and barren: it should be outgoing, apostolic and self-sacrificial, ‘Don’t lose your effectiveness; instead, trample on your own selfishness.  You think your life is for yourself?  Your life is for God, and for the good of all men, through your love of our Lord.  Your buried talent, dig it up again!  Make it yield."  (Bl.. Escriva, Friends of God, 47)

How many millions of people have never dug up their talent and made it yield.  How many have procrastinated their lives away with selfish indulgences, forgetting the command of Jesus Christ, our Lord, seeking only that which is fading away?

These words are so serious for us to hear.  They are clear words, coming from the Water of Life.

The Judgment of Christ is coming, beloved.  We dare not think otherwise.  We live in a day when scoffers forget the words of God.  St. peter says: "First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions  and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.’ " (II Peter 3:3-4, RSV)

Our passions take control and become our lives, when we are living life only for ourselves.

Football, and other games, become more important than Mass for some?

Daily prayer is left undone, because we have no time for it?

Eternity is a long time to spend without God.

Is there no time for prayer, for Mass?

The Judgment comes, listen.  God desires a "profit" from the Graces he bestows through Maria.  God is not a waster of time, through he has all of eternity.

19  Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.'
21  His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.'
22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.'
23 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.'

God desires that graces proffered profit.

Faith without works is dead being alone.

We DARE NOT bury it in the ground (the earth).  Erasmus said -- "No one respects a talent that is concealed."  (Adagia)

Jesus was the exsample to us, he gave his all and was buried only to rise again and take those under the power of sin and death to make them free and bring many sons home to glory.

What is our response to self-less Love doing this?

Selfish burial of what we claim to be "ours" and not his?  It is God Alone who is our portion.  Mary tells us to do whatever he tells us to do.  Dare we bury what he tells us to put to work for him in order to earn more with it in bringing more profit of souls into the Kingdom?

24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow;
25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'

In October of 1978 John Paul II told us this -- "BE NOT AFRAID."  Why, perhaps?  We are on the verge of the springtime of evangelization, an evangelization such as the world has never seen before!  WE need to become a part of this evangelization effort even unto death in our commitments to Jesus Christ!

Are we ready to live and die for Jesus?  I want to be ready and working when Jesus calls me from my vocation of Love!

God help us never to hear this terrible message,

26 But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed?
27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents.
29  For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
30  And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.'

My friends, this speaks of Hell, the outer darkness.  A darkness so horrible that we cannot describe it other than that darkness and alone-ness is so horrible, so palpable that men will weep and grind their teeth in an agony forever and for ever!  Horrible thought -- forever, all eternity, to perpetually be in a conscious death without the ground of our being -- God.  We have no words to describe such separation from God.
No more love, no more gentleness, just the absence forever of all good -- gnashing of teeth, agony, alone!

Hell is not a place where we go to play cards, or enjoy football, basketball and sports.  Hell is bad news!

It need not ever be so for any.  We offer the Good news of Salvation -- Jesus Christ!

Live for God Alone.

Cooperate with God’s Graces!

Become like our Sanctissima, Mary, our highest example of virtue, according to the calling of God for each of us to become like her (cf. II Cor. 11:1-6).

It is the vocation of all.

Laity, clergy -- all have at least ONE talent.  Let us not bury it in the ground, but, let us carry out into the world the witness of faith we have in Christ and be not afraid.  Let us unselfishly follow Jesus and profit the Kingdom of God through good works that flow from the grace of God.



Deus et Sanctissima.