Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
My dear parishioners,
God is Good!!! All the time!!! And all the time!!! God is Good!!!
An earlier chapter in Proverbs invited readers to enjoy a sumptuous banquet in Lady Wisdom’s elegant house (9:1–6). Fittingly, in this final chapter of the book, readers find themselves within the household of a noble woman who seems to embody many of the attributes associated with Lady Wisdom. The reading is comprised of excerpts from a poem that progresses line by line through the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, giving a sense of unity and wholeness to the book’s final chapter.
Matthew’s parable of the “talents” poses many difficulties for the interpreter. In some way the parable seeks to provide insight into the reality of the kingdom of heaven. Many see allegorical elements in the parable, but it is unclear how to interpret them. Is the wealthy landowner supposed to be Jesus? As he is described, that would be difficult to maintain. Furthermore, what is a talent? Some interpret it as a set of skills. However, it is actually a very large sum of money. Is this parable encouraging people to be responsible with money? This is not clear.
Entrusting talents to a servant. The situation described involves a wealthy landowner entrusting large sums of money to his servants to look after while he is gone. There are three servants. One gets five talents, and another gets two. The third servant receives a single talent. Two of the three servants were very enterprising and doubled their master’s money. They ended up with enormous sums of money. The third servant, however, simply buried his one talent in the ground where it lay fallow while the master was gone.
The moment of accountability. Eventually the master returns and settles accounts with his servants. He is extremely pleased with the fact that the first two servants have doubled their master’s money. Because of what they have done, they clearly have exceeded the master’s expectation. Thus, they are headed for bigger and better things. They will share in the master’s joy.
The third servant. When attention is turned toward the third servant, the entire mood shifts toward the negative. This servant takes the lead by describing the master as a tyrant of the worst kind. Because of this, the servant admits to simply burying the one talent in the ground. He then gives it back to the master. The master admits to being a tyrant but then claims the servant should have known that and at least done something enterprising with the one talent—if only to collect interest (which Jews were forbidden to do). The servant is punished severely by the master. Nevertheless, is he not the hero of the story? He refused to cooperate in the master’s tyranny whatever the cost. Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org.©2023. All rights reserved
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Aloysius