From the responsorial psalm: “Our soul waits for the LORD, who is our help and our shield, For in him our hearts rejoice; in his holy name we trust. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 25:14-30)
Jesus told his disciples this parable: “A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one–to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money.”
“It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus,” Saint Paul says, “who became for us wisdom from God.” Not many of us, he says, are wise by human standards but instead we owe everything to God so should boast not in our own accomplishment but in the Lord. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the talents, emphasizing sharing in the master’s joy when those he has given talents to invest them in small matters and see their value grow. The characters in the parable say to the master, “See, I have made more.” The servant who buries the talent is pitiable because everybody has experienced a sense of unworthiness before the Lord, but it is the same Lord who pours grace upon us to give us courage to make a new start. The French Catholic writer Leon Bloy said: “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.” The talents, or graces, God gives us help us in this life know his joy and at the same time prepare us for the joy of eternal life in his presence. What do we imagine ourselves saying to the Lord when we meet him face to face?
God, give me wisdom through Jesus Christ your Son to recognize the talents you give me and to work with them well so that I can share in your joy. It is difficult to compare the graces others receive with my own, if I even recognize them. Yet, you draw from a supply of grace whose source is endless. The wisdom I receive is your wisdom; the lovingkindness I express is yours; the hope for sanctification and redemption, yours. Help me trust that these talents you give me grow according to my ability as I seek to know and do your will. Let your eyes be upon me, Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.