Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

November 16, 2008 - Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Fr. John Yonkovig

Recently the headlines in every newspaper and on every news program have dealt with the economy. Foreclosures, bankruptcies, the stock market plunging, 401K investments collapsing and the sale of home safes has increased dramatically. People are taking their money out of banks and putting it under their beds! In light of our present fiscal crisis maybe the servant in the gospel who buried the treasure was the wisest of them all? So let’s look at this parable closely. First and foremost, this passage of Matthew’s gospel is not meant to be a lesson in investment banking.

The Gospel story is pretty simple. A wealthy man leaves various amounts for each of three servants to take care of while he is gone. He doesn’t give them instructions, at least that we are told. When he returns, the owner sees that two of the three servants invested the money and got back twice the amount. He is delighted. So the moral of the story would be: “Make the most of what you have.”

But we miss the most interesting part of it all if we look just at the successful servants. We miss the fascinating and puzzling story of the third servant. This poor soul did not invest the money at all. He buried it. Quite simply, he was afraid of investing and losing it.

He was right to be afraid, given the owner’s attitude. When he heard the fearful servant’s story, the owner had the man thrown into “the darkness outside,” where there was “wailing and grinding of teeth.” Quite an overreaction, it seems. The poor guy just wanted to keep the money safe! Maybe the owner was simply a “demanding person,” as the parable says.

But there is more to it, if you look into the parable. The monetary unit “talent” in Jesus’ time was not a small amount. Even one talent could be worth more than a laborer would earn in a lifetime. And the owner entrusted a lot more than just money to the servants. He left them all his possessions, everything he had. He took a great risk and he wanted them to do the same, not leave the investment molding away underground.

Alright so far? Now assume that the parable is about God. Maybe God entrusts an even greater amount to us. Life, abilities, the gift of love, the living breathing human beings around us and all of creation. God gives all this free of charge, gives to us our own lives with all their catastrophes and he says to us, dive in! Have your life. Make whatever you will with it because you are my beloved. It is wonderful. But then the awful question comes. Does God curse those who are afraid and who bury what they are given? Jesus at least seems to say so, “To everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Ouch!

In the realm of spirituality there is only one thing I know that goes away if it is buried, but which gets greater if you use it. Love. Love goes away if not used - it grows when you use it. If fear closes the door too tightly against love, guess where we will be? In the darkness outside the door, wailing and gnashing our teeth.

Get this: we are all frightened and life can be very disappointing at times and we can withdraw from life but God always has compassion upon us. God waits for ages to see if we will not accept just a bit of the love he offers, and if we will even find just enough courage to invest some of it in other people. I end with the words of the great mystic, St. John of the Cross, “In the evening of our life we shall be judged by love, namely, by the sincerity of our love for God, for our neighbor, for our soul.”