“Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them” (RSV Catholic edition, Matthew 25:19)
It was in Jerusalem on the Tuesday in Holy Week that Our Lord told the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids (Virgins), and on the same day he also told the Parable of the Talents. The importance of the warning which this parable gives us may be gauged by the fact that on the previous Saturday at Jericho he had told a similar parable with the same clear-cut warning – the Parable of the Pounds.
The Parable of the Talents opens with a group of servants saying good-bye to their master as he sets out on a journey to a far distant country. It may be a long time before he returns, and now they are receiving their final instructions about the supervision of his property during his absence. Each one, in proportion to his ability, is appointed trustee for a particular amount of his master’s money.
The most capable is made responsible for the management of five talents – a huge sum, for one talent was more than 15 years’ wages of a labourer. (1) Another is entrusted with two talents, and a third with one. Having made this arrangement for them, their master sets off on his travels, but without letting them know when they are to expect him back.
The first two lose no time in making the most of the opportunity presented to them. They had already determined to give their master the best possible welcome on his return and so, using their talents as capital, they entered into a series of business transactions, devoting all their care and skill and ability to what was, for them, a labour of love.
The third servant had a very different outlook. He had no affection for his master. In fact he looked on him as a hard and calculating man who was concerned only with making money for himself out of other people’s labours. So he had no interest in the trust committed to him. It just gave him extra to do, so he did nothing. He put the money in an earthenware jar and buried it in a secret place. At any rate, when his master returned he could not be blamed for having lost any of it.
As a matter of fact it was a long time before he did come, and the first two servants had a successful tale to tell. “Master”, said the first, full of joy at his master’s return, “you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more”. And his master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master” (RSV Catholic edition, Matthew 25:19). The second servant was also praised and promoted to a position of authority and friendship.
In the meantime the third servant had been digging up his jar containing the one talent, and now resentfully brought it. “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow; so I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours” (RSV Catholic edition, Matthew 25:24,25).
The master could not accept this estimation of his character. Had he not just generously rewarded the other two? But he took the servant’s words out of his mouth and used them against him: “Oh, you knew that, did you, you bad and lazy servant? Well, why did you not bank the money then, so that I could have received the interest on it?” So the single talent was taken from him and given to the servant with the ten talents, while the unprofitable servant was dismissed from his master’s service.
We have already seen that it was easy and pleasant for the first two servants to be faithful because they were so well-disposed to their master, whereas it was the other way about with the unprofitable servant. He had an altogether wrong idea of his master’s character. He looked on him as a hard man who expected more than he had any right to expect, and in consequence he did as little as he dared – and that grudgingly.
This parable, like that of the Ten Bridesmaids, is addressed to members of the Church, to the servants of the Master’s household, that is, to you and me. Each of us will be required to show precisely how we have used the opportunities God has given us throughout our lives. So we need to be prepared to account for the smallest details of our daily life. As Jesus said, “I tell you, on the day of judgement you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter…” (NRSV, Matthew 12:36).
This is indeed no more than is reasonable, for we are responsible for all our actions all the time, and if we think a lifetime is a long time, it is quite the opposite with God. In his sight, as the psalmist reminds us. “…a thousand years…are but as yesterday…” (90:4).
The principle on which God’s judgement of us will be based has been graphically described by Our Lord, “Much will be asked of the man to whom much has been given; more will be expected of him, because he was entrusted with more” (Luke 12:48, our emphasis). (2)
By the talents Our Lord means, not natural abilities, but the spiritual gifts he gives us and the opportunities we have of using them effectively for him. The gifts themselves are frequent and abundant enough, as may plainly be seen if we compare our position with someone living perhaps in some remote and inaccessible part of the world. For such a person – who, incidentally means as much to God as we do – there are no churches, no Sacraments, no Scriptures, no Christian prayer, no Christian worship, no Christmas, no Good Friday, no Easter Day and every Christian thing is as unknown and unheard of as the Name of Jesus himself.
What we have received from God over the years, as well as at the present time, is indeed staggering. What advantages have we to help us fulfil the purpose of human existence: to know, love and serve God here so that we may be happy with him for ever hereafter!
Now it is only when we know God that we can serve him; know him, that is to say, not as we know someone just by sight, but as we know someone who shares our life. And the link between the knowledge of God and the service of God is the love of God.
As in the parable, it often happens that people today look on God as a hard taskmaster who wants far more from them than is reasonable for them to give. Some, therefore, decide to give him nothing. Others are afraid that giving nothing could be risky, so they let God have the least they think they can get away with. They are all ready to justify themselves with a plentiful store of excuses. “Master, I knew you to be a hard man…so I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground” (RSV Catholic edition, Matthew 25:24,25).
That is what has happened to people who, as they grow old, are farther from God than when they were children or young people at the time of their Confirmation. For the test of what we have done with all our talents can be put in two questions: “What has God actually received from me in return; and what have my fellow human beings received from me?”
But when a man or a woman understands God’s overflowing goodness and generosity, and loves him for it, then faithfulness to him is easy and service to him becomes a delight in itself. Then prayer and worship and the Sacraments give to life its inner meaning and joy, a joy which is spontaneously communicated to the world at large. And when the time comes for them to go, it will be said of them what Abraham Lincoln hoped might be said of him: “I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow”. (3)
“Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them” (RSV Catholic edition, Matthew:25:19). And the same will happen to each one of us. And each of us will have to give a most exact account of what we have actually made of all the opportunities which God has given us of sharing our innermost life with him and of making the world in our home and outside it, a better and a happier place.
This Advent, as we prepare to celebrate the Birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, let us thank God for all the spiritual gifts he gives us. Let us take a long hard look at the way we use those gifts. Let us get to know God better and love him more through prayer, worship and Sacraments, and reading our Bibles. Let us turn to God in penitence for past failures and ask him to help us serve him and our fellow human beings more faithfully in the future. And let us be encouraged by the words of the psalmist:
“The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”.
“The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made”.
“The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down”.
“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth”.
(NRSV, Psalm 145:8,9, 14,18).
References
1. Footnote in The New Testament RSV Catholic edition (1965) London: Nelson.
2. Knox, R. (1948) The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, London: Burns Oates and Washbourne Ltd.
3. Quoted in http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin161523.html