(Proverbs 31:10-13, 19s, 30s; 1st. Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30)
Today’s parable was relatively long and detailed with
special emphasis being given to the lot of the servant who received one talent and
did nothing with it. Some people tend to
think he was unfairly treated from the beginning by being given only one talent
while others had more given them; and so, feeling sorry for this servant who
“received only one talent”, they harbour a kind of grudge against the master of
those servants and don’t really seek to learn anything from the parable.
However, we should take care not to project twisted modern psychological
attitudes onto the parable, but rather just try, first of all, to appreciate how
much a ‘talent’ was worth in those times long-ago. One talent was equivalent to 6000 denarii,
and a man and his family could live adequately for one day at the cost of 2
denarii. So you see that the man who
received “only one talent” was actually entrusted with a sum sufficient to
provide a suitable living for himself and his family for over 8 years!
People of God, let us have nothing to do with prevalent
greed and self-love which leads many to cry foul where some seem to have more
than others! All of us have, indeed,
been most generously endowed by God for the task of bringing forth fruit for
eternal life in the course of our earthly pilgrimage.
Their master said to two of the three servants on bringing their
profit to him:
Well done, my good and faithful
servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great
responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.
Such words make us feel glad, happy for and happy with
those servants. But, if we concentrate
more directly on the nature of that happiness, we can recognize three aspects
mentioned or implied in those words:
Since you were faithful in small
matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s
joy.’
You were faithful implies the joy, the peace, the
happiness of a good conscience. I
will give you great responsibilities foresees one being able to use one’s
talents and abilities to the full, which is what we could call a satisfying and
honourable career. However, even such
praiseworthy natural happiness is not able to dominate our attention in this
parable because of those last words:
Come, share your master’s joy!
Let us, therefore, for just a few moments, look into the spiritual
depths – that is, the essential core of Jesus’ teaching in this simple parable --
of those degrees of happiness, and you will realise how wonderful is that
invitation to enter into the master’s joy.
Surely, we have all experienced at times the up-lifting joys
and deep happiness that can result from human endeavour in human society: for
example, we treasure the subtle varieties of deep personal love and
human fulfilment in family life, and the more individual joys of worldly success
and achievement. We can appreciate too
the deep ‘selfless’ joys of beauty seen and appreciated in the world
around us, or of truth known and understood.
All such earthly types of joy and happiness do indeed
delight us and give us a sense of deep fulfilment; and yet, they are so easily,
connected indirectly with sorrow and sadness.
There is a famous song, “Plaisirs d’Amour” which tells of the joys of
love which swiftly pass and of its pains and sorrows which endure. That might be a somewhat mawkish and poetic appreciation,
but, nevertheless, we all aware, that, in this world, human love is inevitably accompanied
by its own particular and penetrating sorrows, however slight. As regards the joys of personal achievement and human awareness of beauty and truth can
incur both enmity, envy, and perhaps worst of all, the disappointment of being unsustainable. The physical beauty of the world around us is
being shown in these modern times as more and more unreliable, with global
heating causing great destruction and insecurity, through such of opposites as
floods and fires, while also threatening the harmony of seasonal changes and
the ever-recurring short periods of special beauty such as autumn and spring.
That is why so many modern people opt only for present,
personal, pleasure and try to avoid love or special attachments of whatever
sort; they want just loose relationships without any binding commitment, so
that if and when sorrow looms ahead, they can break free and take up another
source of comfort and pleasure that promises less trouble or greater satisfaction.
Our work, so necessary for living life these days, can -- at
best -- offer us only limited successes; and, of course, those short periods of
apparent fulfilment can be quickly obscured by the shadow of competition and/or
soured by occasional threats such as short time or redundancy.
The joy of a good conscience, however, is not in any way
connected with sorrow or suffering and is therefore joy of a superior kind; moreover,
it leads to another unsuspected joy which can be ours: a share in God’s own
eternal happiness – ‘Come share your master’s joy’ -- which totally
transcends all earth’s passing joys.
But how can it come about that we -- who know ourselves to
be, at the very best, so prone to sin so weak and fragile in doing good -- are
capable of receiving and appreciating, infinite, eternal, happiness? Despite all the outstanding advances of
modern scientific thinking and technological ingenuity and expertise, we cannot
even imagine, let alone conceive, the immensity, the variety and beauty of the
universe God has created and sustains: how then can our poor hearts be expanded
so as to be able to accept a fullness corresponding to His own infinite beatitude
in which we are promised a share?
The Psalmist (Psalm 81:10) gives the answer to our
question:
I am the LORD your God Who
brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide.
How are we to open wide our mouth? Listen to the Psalmist (Psalm 119:32) once again:
I will run the course of Your
commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart.
That, dear People of God, is the way we can prepare ourselves
to receive the divine happiness that can be ours: we open wide our mouth by
walking -- indeed by running -- in the way of God’s commandments; and He then enlarges
our hearts so that He might subsequently fill them with the riches of His
blessings.
However It is often objected – usually by unthinking people
-- against the very thought of eternal happiness, that ‘it must be extremely
boring’. Let me counter such a remark
with a question. Could eternal pain be
boring? Of course not, such pain would
not allow anyone sufficient respite ever to think of being bored! The thought of being bored by the joys of
heaven is, indeed, an unthinking, foolish, or even stupid thought
I want you to just try to recall the happiest moments of
your life. Do you remember how short the
time seemed? You were so happy it seemed
only a moment, even though it might have been hours, days, even years. Now that gives us the key to heavenly
happiness, for even though time is earthly, part and parcel of creation where
things are always changing, nevertheless, there are occasions -- yes, even here
on earth -- when time seems to stop or disappear, melt, in the presence of
happiness. How much more then is the
question of time utterly irrelevant in eternity where there is no time! Eternity is not endless time, eternity is timeless; time has no meaning for there
is nothing to be measured by time in heaven before God’s Presence. St. Peter tells us something of this in a
pictorial way in his second letter (2 Peter 3:8):
Beloved, do not forget this one
thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years
as one day.
Therefore, for those who are called to share, with Jesus,
by the Holy Spirit, in God’s heavenly blessedness, time will be totally supplanted
by transcendent joy flooding their whole being, body and soul. Think again, People of God! You have had plenty of experience even here
on earth, which is, so to speak, a time-zone: if you are bored or weary,
anxious or worried, time drags ever so slowly; and yet, when you are happy it
flies! Therefore, even here on earth, time
is relative. Now, heaven is a time-free
zone: that is, in heaven time is totally irrelevant, not only because we won’t
notice it, but because it has no being, no function, in the bliss of God to
which we are invited in Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
Don’t think little of your gifts, People of God, be they 5,
2, or 1 talents-worth, they are more than ample for all your needs. Don’t be foolish enough now -- and ultimately
wicked enough -- to ignore a happiness which can transfigure your whole being
and help transform our world, making you eternally fulfilled and happy beyond
all imagining! It can be yours in Jesus:
let Him lead you, in His Church, by His Holy Spirit, to live and work for the
glory of the Father, in Whose presence -- Jesus promises -- you will be greeted
by those most memorable words:
Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord!
