Sunday word, 16 Nov 14

Never Hold Back

33^rd Sunday of the Year A (16 Nov 2014)

Prv 31. 10-13, 19-20, 30-31; Ps 128; 1Th 5. 1-6; Mt 25. 14-30

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

Jesus was a fine storyteller. Characters in his parables represented all facets of society. He included unjust, dishonest, faithless, immoral, wicked and lazy characters. That litany is no mere attention getter; it is fact. Judges¹ to religious professionals² to property owners³ and managers⁴ to servants⁵ exemplify qualities we do not associate with Jesus or desire. Why did Jesus people his parables with them? Not because they were unjust, dishonest, faithless, immoral, wicked or lazy. Jesus wanted his hearers—and us—to act with their determination not their morals.

Jesus told parables to help us appreciate what God is like⁶; what the reign of God is like⁷; and especially to invite us to welcome the reign of God and respond to it. The response of devious people in his parables was the sort of response Jesus hoped would be ours. Take the parable we heard today.

Bibles caption this parable of Matthew The Parable of the Talents. It is not about skills; it is about money, lots and lots of money. A talent in the world of Jesus was a unit of weight, about 80 pounds. A gold talent was worth over $29,000; a silver talent almost $2,000.⁸ Take the modest silver talent: the man in the parable gave one servant $10,000, another $5,000 and one $2,000. The buying power of each amount in Jesus’ day was staggering.

The wealthy man was one of those shady characters in Jesus’ parables. His wealth seemed to have grown by dis-honest dealings. If he tried to hide it, one servant knew. The servant forced him to admit it: I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter. Say you plant potatoes; then I harvest them from your garden as mine. The wealthy man in Jesus’ parable played with no small potatoes! Two servants seemed like him.

Two servants worked with the money given them; each doubled it. The ever-increasing amounts of money suggest their achievements may have involved less than honest or legal dealings. But the third did not work with it; he dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. His reward? Thrown out of his master’s service.

The parable is gripping. Jesus was a fine storyteller; he had no qualms about using immoral characters in his parables. He knew many real ones. His compassionate concern included them: I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.⁹ Jesus noted many people risked things for one thing or another. The greatest risk takers included shady ones—something true now as then.

The value of the reign of God exceeds anything we can imagine let alone obtain. Do we risk everything for it? Or do we play ostrich and bury our heads in the sands of daily living? Two of Jesus’ parables earlier in this gospel stressed risking all is the attitude to have for the reign of God: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy…sells all that he has and buys that field. [Or] like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.¹⁰

The reign of God is no accidental find. It is our triune God’s gift. In response it requires a lifelong quest. It involves “going for broke,” to use an image in tune with today’s gospel selection. The reign of God is not for the lazy or those who keep to themselves. It belongs to those who desire it with lively longing and witness to it by deeds beyond words:¹¹ extending hands and arms to those in need.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week

• Pause in the company of our triune God creating you each moment.
• Ask Mary and the saints to present you to Jesus.
• Chat with him: praise him for giving his life and rising for you; thank him for his determined, tireless effort to save you and join you to him and each other.
• Ask Jesus for grace to make you his more courageous, vigorous witnesses announcing the reign of God by how you live.
• Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. Pray it with determination. His prayer focused Jesus and kept him focused on announcing the reign of God. He gave it to us to do the same in our lives.

Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

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1. Luke 18.1-8.
2. Luke 18.9-14.
3. Matthew 25.14-30. Luke casts him as a nobleman. Luke 12.16-21.
4. Matthew 16.1-8.
5. Matthew 25.14-30; Luke 19.12-27; Luke 12.42-48.
6. Three parables of lost and found do that vividly.
7. The parables of Matthew 13; 18.23-34; 20.1-16; 22.2-14; 25.
8. Entry at Nave’s Topical Bible.
9. The New American Bible left out the final word.
10. Matthew 13.44-46.
11. As next week’s gospel selection makes clear.

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Wiki-images: Parable of the talents Andrey Mironov CC BY-SA 3.0; Treasure and pearl PD-Release