Andrey Mironov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Next Sunday’s Gospel relates the Parable of the Talents. At the time of Jesus one talent was an enormous sum of money, worth more than fifteen years’ wages! Imagine entrusting 15 or 30 or 75 years of wages of your hard-earned money into the hands of your employees as you set off on a long journey! Yet, that is what the man does in the Gospel reading next Sunday.
And that is exactly what Jesus has done for each of us as well. Jesus has gone on a very long journey, entrusting his Church and each of us with all sorts of precious gifts: faith, scripture, sacraments, the double commandment of love and the example of Jesus and the saints, as well as our own unique gifts, graces and talents.
We are those servants in Sunday’s Gospel. The question is this: Will we be as generous in sharing our gifts with others as Jesus has been in sharing his gifts with us?
The reading from Proverbs in next Sunday’s reading gives us the beautiful example of a wife and mother who used her gifts exceedingly well. Her husband has entrusted his heart to his wife and she, in turn, “brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.” The reading describes the many things that this large-hearted woman does to enhance the wellbeing of her husband and children, while extending her selfless love even beyond kith and hearth as she “reaches out her hands to the poor and extends her arms to the needy.”
If she were one of the servants in today’s Gospel, how delighted her Master would be that she has used so well and so generously the gifts and talents that he had entrusted to her!
The point of the readings from Proverbs and Matthew’s gospel speaks directly to each of us. We are spouses, parents, and children. We are neighbors and citizens. We are colleagues, students, best friends and relatives. Each of our many roles comes with responsibilities to fulfill and with opportunities for the generous practice of virtue and the courageous witness to Christian values. For St. Francis de Sales we are all challenged to “… be who we are and be that well in order to give glory to the Master Craftsman whose handiwork we are.”
If we live out our lives in that manner, when Jesus returns, we will hear from him the words that we all long to hear from him on that day: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Well done!”
God be Praised!
Gratefully,
V. Rev. Lewis S. Fiorelli, OSFS
Provincial
Wilmington/Philadelphia Province
Oblates of St. Francis de Sales
This reflection originally appeared in DeSales Weekly, the e-newsletter of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.
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