This weekend the gospel is another parable-with-atwist in the Matthean-style. These parables that we hear at the end of this liturgical year are apocalyptic in nature, meaning of or related to the end time. Theses parables are meant to give great hope to those in the midst of troubles, and while the “troubles’ may be different in each circumstance, the anxiety one feels from their troubles remain the same powerful angst in each generation.

Today we hear of the master and his three (3) servants who are given talents—money—to care for while their master goes on a journey. It is well known that the master expects his servants to “make good on the talents” and through risk-taking, or investing, make more talents for their master. In the end, two servants make their master proud and are praised; the third servant is condemned for his “lack of trying” or self-initiative.

Scripture scholar Father Timothy Senior reminds us that there are three key points to consider in light of this gospel message and what it means for us today: (1) it encourages us or calls us to be ready and alert for the return of Jesus Christ; (2) that we need to live actively and responsibly as followers or disciples of Christ; and (3) that the Lord commands us to do good (righteous) things in-and-through our lives until Christ comes again.

This falls in line well with the Church’s teaching on the laities role in the celebration of the Eucharistic Mass: to have full and active participation of the laity; meaning, that we cannot simply sit idly by and wait for the promises of Jesus Christ but that we must now help to build up the Kingdom of God on earth by the kind of discipleship we bring to life.

The twist in today’s Gospel of Matthew is this: the parable shows the third servant burying his talent in the ground—an ancient practice whereby people believed that to bury a valuable item in the ground was to guarantee its safe keeping. That’s the problem—our Lord does not want us to simply keep our faith “safe” for us but rather calls us to take a risk and, and as Pope Francis says, go out into the peripheries where people are unbelieving, where faith is weak or being
hindered by man-made obstacles and “tell the Good, Good News” (as last weekend’s recessional hymn stated). We are to tell the good news through our words, our deeds and through the living out of our faith—bringing it to life in our families, church communities and even, God forbid, at work or school.

The master in the gospel today sees the act of being “safe” by burying the talent in the ground as being fearful, or more to the point, wicked or lazy. Our God does not wish us to be lazy or indifferent about our faith. He wants us to believe in the Hope promised by Christ’s death and Resurrection—and the promise that we too will be raised and glorified if we but believe in Him. But to believe in God is to Live Him and to Share Him with those around us.

Today, the Lord commands us to take the talents and gifts He has given to us- you and me- along with the many blessings which He has bestowed on us as we live in a world of plentifulness and replete with freedoms—and to share all of those things with people in the peripheries of life: the hungry and the homeless, the lost and the forgotten, as well as those who suffer from ignorance and unbelief, or those “educated” through myths of God or by outright lies about Him (the devil is cleaver and has supporters). If we wish to please the Master-of-masters, we cannot bury our heads or our talents in the ground, but we are called to lift high the eyes of faith and
when we see the needs around us, to respond by imitating.Now, those dividends will be “off the charts” when it comes to Eternal returns. This is how we make our own, modern “parables” which tell the Good, Good News about salvation and give hope to peoples in difficult times.