The Church turns her\ngaze towards the end of time when we will be judged by the Lord Jesus. Have we\nused the gifts and talents he has given us for his glory? Have we spent our\ntime well? Have we sinned? Have we brought glory to his name? But at the heart\nof our judgment is the following question: who is the Lord Jesus? What is he to\nme? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All three servants in today\u2019s Gospel call their master \u201cmaster.\u201d They\nunderstand he is above them. But the servant who made five talents and the\nservant who made three talents do not see their master as harsh. Rather, they\nsee that he is generous. \u201cMaster, you gave<\/em> me five talents.\u201d \u201cMaster, you gave<\/em>\nme two talents.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the ancient world, a talent was a small fortune. And so these\nservants understood that the small fortune they received was a gift. They\ncouldn\u2019t have made that amount of money on their own, and for the master to\ngive them his own fortune deserved a response. They saw their master was\ngenerous, and so they did not squander his generosity but bore fruit: a profit\nof ten and four talents, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the wicked servant? \u201cMaster, I knew you were a demanding person,\nharvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter.\u201d\nNotice the difference? The wicked servant begins with himself. He doesn\u2019t see\nthe master\u2019s generosity or the immense gift he has received. He\u2019s only\nconcerned with his<\/em> cut of the profit. Even though he received one talent,\nthat one talent is more than he could ever make in his lifetime. And for his\nselfishness, for his squandering of such an immense gift, he is cast out\nbecause he failed to see the gift that the master gives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So it is with us. St Bernard of Clairvaux once said that \u201ctrue love\ndoesn\u2019t ask for a reward; it deserves one.\u201d Though it just happens to be the\ncase that the word \u201ctalent\u201d comes to mean a sort of natural skill or gift – the\ntalent to sing, to dance, or to cook – the talents we receive point us to the\nGiver: God himself. The talents we receive are indeed gifts, but they are\ngifts for God\u2019s glory and for others, gifts deserving a response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Father gives us the greatest treasure he can give: the love of\nChrist on the cross. This is the greatest gift we could receive because it is\nthe love of the Bridegroom who dies to preserve his Bride the Church from all\nblemish and sin. May we see Christ\u2019s generous love in our talents and lives,\nand so work with loving hands to give Jesus Christ the glory and honor he\ndeserves when he returns again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Joseph Yuson <\/strong>\u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Rod Long\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n