THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A
( Prov 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1Thess 5:1-6; Math 25:14-30)

Theme: Let us present ourselves to the Lord as Good and Faithful in the smallness of our life

Reflection:

- “Let us present ourselves to the Lord awake and ready to be with Him” was our theme for the reflections of the Last Sunday in which we have meditated - upon the ‘searching for the Wisdom of the Lord’ (first reading), the inspiration of the Psalm to ‘search for Him at the dawn because it is more valuable than anything’ (Responsorial Psalm), the reality of the truth that Jesus is dead and risen which dispels our ignorance and gives us the hope (second reading) and finally, it is ‘prudence and wisdom that keeps us awake and ready in any day or in any hour of life’ (Gospel) – and thus we have the Christian mission of meeting him and we have the possibility only when we are awake from our night of ignorance and only when we are ready with the armor of the day of hope and wisdom.
- “Let us present ourselves to the Lord as Good and Faithful servants” is our theme for today and we are going to meditate how God has entrusted to each one of us a particular and a special task and how far we are in the grade of fulfilling it with fidelity and with responsibility. Before we go deep into the refection of today’s reading we have to make note of the similar themes that we have in the last weeks of the Liturgical year.
- The word ‘present ourselves’ appears quite often these days, specially, it was there in the last Sunday and today and it will be also in the next Sunday, Sunday of the Christ the King before whom we have to present ourselves as ‘good soldiers’ who have accomplished his will and ready to participate in his Kingdom. The Church asks us to prepare ourselves well to ‘stand in front our Lord’ with the ‘mind full of His thoughts’, with the ‘hands full of His actions’ and with the ‘heart full of His life’ and then only we are found well-prepared by our Lord. Therefore, ‘presenting ourselves to the Lord’ is our frequent theme of these Sundays and why:
o This is the time for our personal presentation: we have to give account for all that we had to do and we have finally completed; nobody is responsible for our life; we live the life and we give an balance sheet of how and how far we have reached; this is the time of judgment and reward for the actions we have accomplished.
o This is the time for reaping the fruits: Just before the ending of the liturgical year we are called to ‘sum up’ all that we are entrusted and we have put into practice and to reap the fruit according to our actions which would be: standing on the right-side of the Lord for the premium of blissful life or remaining on the left-side of the Lord for the premium of condemnation and in other words, in the words of the Gospel of today, - sharing in the joy of the master or being thrown outside into the darkness of cry and biting the teeth.
o This is the time for a wise life: we have to lead an accountable and responsible living; because the life is a gift of God and we have to return it to him with the same dignity and commitment; each thought we make and each action we do produce its consequences and it can be a good fruit or it can be bad fruit depending on the ‘wisdom and prudence’ that is utilized in working for it. Once again we are called to live a ‘wise’ life: as we have seen in the first reading of last Sunday, wisdom of God is always available and it makes itself reachable to those who search for it and with the commitment and fatigue of acquiring it because it is more valuable than one’s own life as seen in the Psalm of the last week and finally it makes us: a) to know the will and design of God for us and therefore, makes us to think always of the reality of God and his kingdom and without stopping with the knowledge of Him it, then gives us the force, b) to act upon it immediately and with genuine in-put of personal capabilities and demanded requirements like that of ‘faith, hope and charity’. Only the one who is wise can understand the meaning of life and its destiny and travel towards perfecting it with the love of God and of neighbor.
o Let us enter therefore into the reflections of today’s readings with these points behind our mind and heart so that we are able to understand them better and make them to bear fruit in our life and only in this way we can be ‘good and faithful’ servants and indeed we already are as far as we are called to be so by our Lord and we insofar are mindful of this reality.

First Reading:

- The woman is the personification of the ‘wisdom’ of God:
o In the Wisdom Literature of the Bible, the wisdom or the knowledge of God is always seen in the image of a woman and it is always compared to the nature of a woman: therefore, the reality of wisdom (or the woman) is seen by its fruits, the fruits of hands and of her actions: (v.31):
 It is more valuable than the pearls (v. 10);
 Its recipient is full of confidence and he never has loss in life (v.11);
 It gives joy and a joy that knows no ending (v.12);
 It prepares its garments, the armor of safety from any type of weather (v.13);
 Its hands are always extended to the aid of the poor (v.20);
 It is the fear of the Lord therefore it has to be praised (v.30);
o As the woman is tender in her words, compassionate in her actions, and loving in her charity to others so also the wisdom has the same nature: it makes the recipient kind in his words and committed in his deeds and finally out-reaching in his charitable acts towards the needy;
o As the perfect woman in the reading who knows well her proper life (the life as donated by God in a special way) and who discerns well her proper vocation ( her duty and responsibility in the family, for the husband and for her children) and who completes well her mission of being for others ( her generous and charitable acts for the good of the others), so also the wisdom makes us understand and be perfect by manifesting a life of faith and love.
- The creation is the manifestation of the wisdom of God:
o We are part of creation and we are called also to be ‘above’ the creation in a sense that we are collaborators of the creator and we have the responsibility of ‘producing fruits and multiplying the creation’ (Gen 1:28 – “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the earth”).
o As we have the mission and vocation of ‘being fruitful and producing fruits’ we have also the way to accomplish it and the way is none other than ‘the manifestation of God’s wisdom’:
 We ourselves should become the personification of the wisdom in the sense that we really produce the fruits of wisdom as said above: on the one hand, living a worthy and dignified Christian life and on the other, giving testimony to the same life with the acts of love;
 We make our social sphere – be it the family, be it the community, be it the society, and be it even the political – fruitful; we have the responsibility of making it grow and produce the peace and harmony in the common life; only in this way, we manifest the wisdom of God in our creation of the society/humanity; the same point we will discuss in detail in the Gospel reflections.

The second Reading:

- Paul’s admonition to his people about being always attentive and active:
o V.1: regarding the time and moments: it proposes that we have to observe well the time in which we are in and the various moments that affect our Christian life and vocation; the same thing is said also by Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees that they see the weather and clouds and know what is going to happen and more than that we have to observe the social situations, political conditions, false attractions that surround us and be attentive in order not to fall into them; therefore we have to keep open our eyes and our hearts to see them and to examine their authenticity;
o V. 2: the day of the Lord: we do not know its time and its moment; what we know certainly is that it will come and we will certainly meet it and the important aspect is in what condition we are going to interact with it. More than that, the day of the Lord is today itself for thus sings the Psalmist: ‘this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it’. Thus waiting for the day of the Lord which comes in the hour we do not know is one thing; and living everyday as the ‘day of the Lord’ giving it its importance and its glory with our committed life and thus be prepared for it every moment of our life is another thing; For the time of the Apostle Paul, the first one was apt because they were negligent and lazy thinking that the Lord will not come so soon and that they could enjoy and pass the life in the indifference; but for our times, that is, for us today, the second one is important because we are called to ‘make every day fruitful with the works of the Lord’ and thus give him the glory;
o Vv.4-6: we are the children of the day and of the light: we are no more the children of the night or darkness because the powers of evil and deeds of darkness were vanished from our life with the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Sacraments, specially of Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation; from that day, the day of our rebirth in Christ and in Church we are made the children of the Light (Jesus is the light of the world) and the children of the Day (the Day of all days is the Resurrection of Jesus and therefore we are people of new life). For this we are called to ‘do away with the life of egoism and pride’ and ‘enter into the life of love of God and of neighbors’. This is what is called ‘living’ the day of the Lord.

Gospel:

- Biblical Context of the Parable of the Talents:
o This parable is proper to Mathew and it is, like its precedent parable of the ten virgins, has a rich and strong sense: fructifying the proper talents and multiplying the proper and personal capacities. Though we may find this universal wisdom anywhere, here in the Gospel it is treated in a different way;
o Even here we have two stages of the origin of the parable:
 When Jesus, before initiating his passion, has narrated this story to his disciples, he has done it to announce them of his departure from this world and he gives them all that he has, all the talents he has entrusted to them, they are: his mission, his life and continuation of his work of the kingdom of God; with this he keeps in clear evidence the great responsibility of the disciples: they are the continuators of the opera (work) of Jesus, and each one with his proper capacity.
 In the Gospel of Mathew this parable is presented in the context of certain situation in which his community was in the troubles and the problems of negligence of common responsibility and laziness in giving testimony to the Gospel of Christ, just like a third servant of the Gospel who has buried and hidden his talent and thus remained indifferent to his task. Therefore, presenting to this particular contextual community, Mathew indicates how the master treats the servant who is ‘wicked and lazy’ with the serious condemnation and by this Mathew encourages his community to be attentive and to actively participate in the Christian vocation and specially making double the fruits of the work entrusted to them.
o The attitude of the third servant: this servant has safely hidden his talent; and so when we think in the humanly way this seems to be a prudent act; but the grave mistake is ‘NOT KNOWING’ (failure to discern the use of the talent and work with it) what to do with the gifts entrusted; he has not treated well the ‘goods of the kingdom of God’. The Good News cannot be buried; the Gospel cannot be hidden; the Word cannot be blocked; because it is a ‘power of salvation’ and therefore it has to be diffused, otherwise it becomes barren without bearing any fruit. The disciples and the Church has to continue multiplying and fructifying the ‘goods’ of the God’s kingdom with the untiring work and risk. This is the central message proclaimed by this parable.
o Understanding few important words:
 Talents (v. 15): the original meaning of the talent is not a personal capacity as we think but in the biblical sense it is ‘a measure of weight’: 34 kilos of either gold or silver or any kind of precious metal. Therefore, it is a ‘sum of valuable good’ that weighs 34 kilos: in a word, it is a ‘considerable sum’. Later on, the parable is read and reflected in the significance of ‘personal capacities’ with which one is entrusted. Therefore, there is a need to make bear fruit the proper goods and thus develop them for the common well being.
 Traded with them (v.16): the master has not said anything about what to do with the gifts given; he has just given them and went away; there is no command of doing something; there is neither some indication that they should not do anything; he has left to the one who has received to do whatever he wants; only when its value is considered the first two servants went and traded with them and have doubled them with their prudent and wise commitment even at the cost of risking of losing everything;
From the good sense of the parable we can understand that the third servant has done well by preserving it safely and not to take risk and lose it so that he would be empty-handed when the moment of accounts come; but thing is: this is not the actual problem; the image used totally different: not the economic valuation but ‘quality of the work/risk that has to be put in developing it’.
 Little and More (v.21): the recompense cannot be measured according to the talents entrusted which are already considerably valuable; the teaching is near to that of Math 13:23 – “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” – and the teaching is: the kingdom of god is infinitely above the talents entrusted in view of their perfect realization.
 I know (v.24): main problem of the third servant lies here; he has already misconceptions of the master; if he would have returned the talent as it is, master’s punishment would have been far more little and his attitude towards him would have been completely different; but the servant expresses all his ‘false understanding’ of the master; the only talent being taken away from him and being thrown into the darkness is the consequence ‘not of not working with the talent’ alone and only, but more than that, his indifferent behavior;
In the community of Mathew this kind of behavior was taking dominance and especially in the moment of persecutions and during the long awaiting for the Lord some were acting like the third servant; they have gone to the extent of doubting the message of Jesus and hiding and blocking it, instead of extending it far and more.

- Spiritual interpretation: ‘Embracing the work of the kingdom of God’
o Though at the beginning this parable gives us an impression that it is legated to the economic and capitalistic sphere, the accent is made on the ‘working’/trading, and the multiplying/fructifying of the mission entrusted.
o This theme is specified ‘not on the accounts calculated by the master’, rather, it is based on the judgment he pronounces to the two parties: to the party of the good and faithful servants: ‘take part in the joy of your master’ and to the party of wicked and lazy servant: ‘throw him out into the darkness’.
o The important point here is not the simple task of developing the proper talents or one’s own talents: because each one of us is endowed with the special gifts and potentialities and we take pride in growing with our personal capabilities; that’s fine. BUT the more accentuated or convincing discourse is not just this and it goes beyond this: ‘the master entrusts HIS properties, his goods and his mission’; we have to keep in mind of the ‘talents of the kingdom of God’ that are entrusted to us: the Christian Faith with all the liturgy and sacraments and the Christian Way with all its thorns of sufferings, stones of temptations and finally with the Force and Power of the Holy Spirit to win over them.
o ‘Wisdom is Our Aid – Prudence is our armor’: since the master has just entrusted to us his properties and his belonging – the work of the kingdom and the grace of salvation – without giving any instructions or indications of what to do and how to go about the given task, it is the duty and responsibility of the receiver to discern and decide what has to be done. At this juncture of confusion and helplessness our recourse is ‘the wisdom’ and ‘prudence’ ( the summary of the first reading – woman at work and vocation is the personification of wisdom of God) and we have to run towards our Helper, our Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Master himself sends us to understand the truth of the salvific work, because only with and in Him we understand what to do with the talents of Jesus given to us and because ‘both wisdom and prudence’ are his gifts to the mankind.
o The first two servants have immediately understood the task and kept themselves at work of trading and multiplying because they have trusted, with the grace of the Spirit, their master to be generous and kind and as the one who entrusts to them the work to make it fructify; instead, the third one, because of his wicked understanding of the master and his personal laziness for work, neglected the aid of the Spirit and went on to do his own way and he could not find any other way than hiding it and burying it; and the result is only ‘for the manifestation of their attitude towards the master and his goods’: the joy of the master for the faithful servants and the condemnation of life for the unfaithful servants;
o ‘Treasure Has to Be Shared’: the sin of Adam (or the first parents) is not just eating the fruit of the banned tree but it is more than that: it is ‘hiding’ from the presence of the Lord which indicates also ‘burying’ the love and friendship of the Lord for and with them. God’s Goods (the Kingdom), God’s Word (Jesus Christ) and God’s Power (the Holy Spirit) cannot be buried and hidden; they are entrusted to the Christian community to live them, to work with them, to multiply them and to share them with the others by trading with them; Jesus himself tells about the kingdom as the ‘hidden treasure’ but to be found and be owned by the genuine and authentic searcher of the it (Math 13:44).
The same questions will be asked by the master: ‘Adam where are you and why are you hiding?’ and ‘Wicked and Lazy servant why did you hide my treasure?’. We have to also face the same questions if we act like Adam: ‘hiding ourselves from His presence’ or if we act like the third servant: ‘hiding all that we are entrusted, such as, the faith and the sacraments and the liturgy, in the ground making them/considering them as useless’. Are we ready to give an account for such type of behavior or for the similar attitude we manifest many times in our life?
o Answer is ours! No one takes our responsibility. No one talks for us. No one stands by us in the moment of the judgment. We have to give an answer. We have to put forward our accounts. We have to show the balance sheet to the master.
Whether we work for it and multiply it and receive the share of joy of heavens or we neglect it and be indifferent and thus receive the eternal darkness. Everything is in Us and We are the Responsible for our actions; Let us be attentive and always at work!

Conclusion:

- Each one of has a special task for the kingdom of God:
o For the Lord each one of us is very important and to each one he has entrusted a particular work to multiply and magnify the kingdom of love and peace; each one has a special place in the mind and heart of God: because
o Each one is a unique person because there was never before and is now or will be after us a person who is similar to us;
o Our importance and our value is so much that we have to be always mindful of our presence and purpose in the world: a book is not complete if even one full-stop or coma is missing in it; seashore is not complete if even one grain of sand is missing in it; so also, the world is not full and complete if you are missing in it; because it needs you and it accepts your presence as a precious one and therefore, we need to understand the design of God for us and live for it;
o He has created each one of us in his image and likeness, he has carved our form even before falling to the womb of our mother and he has written our name on His palms and so important we are for him; did we ever ask why God has done so much for me? The answer is simple: He Love You; that’s why he has formed you, called you, chosen you and finally saved you to be with him forever. Therefore, we have to work hard and with committed enthusiasm for his purpose and for his kingdom;
- Boat is not made to be on the Shore:
o The boat on the shore looks beautiful and it is safe if it is always on the shore but the purpose of the boat is not to be on the shore but to travel in the waters: so also nice that we, often, keep ourselves on the safer side without taking any risk in our Christian life: keeping ourselves away from the living of our faith; it is safer that we just go to the church and pray and remains as a good Christians;
o But, the purpose of our Christian life is different and higher than just being good Christians and we have to go further to trade with the ‘goods of the Lord’ that we have received from him – the mission and vocation of testimony – and face the challenges with risk and courage and above all ‘with the wisdom and prudence’ of the Holy Spirit.
o We have to be the boats on the waters, not the boats on the shore: we have travel always forward in our Christian life sharing (trading) the gifts entrusted to us (the precious treasure of the kingdom values) with all and thus multiplying them and fructifying them (leading all to the knowledge and love of God);
o Because the time is coming for us to present ourselves to the Lord: as good and faithful servants so that we have the share in the joy of our Master. For this on one side, we have to be awake and ready and on the other side, we have to be always at work of the our faith – in a word – let us prepare ourselves to be in front of the Lord as ‘good and faithful servant’ in the smallness of our life.