“Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back'” (Mt 25: 24-25).
When I first began the journey of reading and seeking to put the teachings of Jesus into practice in my later teens and early twenties, I struggled with this verse of Jesus’ Parable of the Talents, not because I didn’t relate to it, but instead because I did! I sided with the servant who buried his talent in the ground and did not understand what he did wrong.
What the servant did made sense to me, he kept his master’s talent safe and returned what he had been given. Historically, burying was considered a safe and acceptable practice in ancient Palestine when protecting someone else’s money. Even in reading carefully back to the beginning of the parable, I could see no reference to investing the talents. Though in the Gospel of Luke, there is an explicit demand to “trade with these until I come” (Lk 19:13). What is Jesus saying?
Jesus offers a microcosm of salvation history, the thread of which has been woven through all Sacred Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. God, through his sovereign will, has consistently called, calls today, and will continue to call into the future a people to himself. This is echoed in today’s first reading where Paul writes three times, “God chose”. He chose the foolish, the weak, the lowly and despised of the world such that what is shared coming from each of this is to be seen clearly as a gift coming from God and not man. This is so that neither of them could boast in their own effort, but in God alone.
In each age, God has bestowed upon humanity the generous gift of his grace, inviting us to receive and share in his very life, which is what we have been created for. This is a free gift, to be freely accepted or rejected. Once received though – no matter how little we choose to receive, we are directed to share what we have been given. Through a life lived of accepting, receiving, giving back to God and to one another, we are given even “greater responsibilities”.
In receiving the gift of God, himself, and sharing what he has given, ultimately his love, for God is love (1 John 4:16), we not only mirror on earth, albeit dimly, but share in the divine communion of the love between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. To reject this gift outright, or to receive some of the benefits and not to share, we cut ourselves off from the very life force and source of our being.
We can see this pattern emerge in this parable. The master gives his servants talents. All accept what they have been given, five, two, and one. Two received and multiplied their talents. The third refused and kept it to himself. The master returns, commends and rewards the two, then berates and even takes the little the one had been given and gives it to the one who had more.
The message of The Parable of the Talents is as clear as it is challenging. John P. Meier summarizes that “Jesus is insistent; along with sovereign grace, serious demand, and superabundant reward comes the possibility of being condemned for refusing the demand contained in the gift. Indeed, one might argue that no aspect of Jesus’ teaching is more pervasive in the many different streams of the Gospel tradition, and no aspect is more passed over in silence today” (Meier 2016, 309).
God has created us and all of creation from the abundant outpouring of his love. Will we reject the gift of his love and invitation of communion? Will we receive, yet not actualize who we are called to be for our self and others because we would rather merely just exist, willing to be lured and entrapped by the temptations of anxiety, fear, apparent goods, and half-truths? Will we give in to the fear, too afraid to risk, to go out from ourselves to serve others? Or, will we appreciate the gift of our life and say thank you for the breath that we breathe and then be willing to expand the love we have received? Will we embrace who God calls us to be, to love in kind, to will the good of others in the unique way God calls us to serve, whoever they may be?
I have lived the life of the wicked servant who buried his talent out of fear. I have embraced the sin of sloth and resisted opportunities to share what God has given me to invest. This was no path to fulfillment, but an experience of separation from the fullness of the One who wants so much more. To live a day to day existence adrift and dulled, is certainly not the way I hope to spend another day.
I was faced with a choice about two and a half years ago. To finish out the school year at Cardinal Newman HS and take a year off to collapse and rest or to pursue the priesthood. I asked God what he wanted me to do. I heard in the silence of my heart, “Priesthood”. It was a gentle but clear affirmation. My shoulders sank, but the embers of my soul were set alight!
I chose not to turn away from God’s call, I chose not to bury his gift in the sand. I chose instead to trust in Jesus and invest the talents he gave me and once given the green light entered seminary. The talents I invested in that time are already reaping incredibly as I have been serving as a priest these past two months. I experience and share the love I receive from God daily in celebrating Mass, preparing and sharing homilies, writing and uploading these reflections, entering the lives of families to share the sacraments of the anointing of the sick, funeral Masses, confessions, spiritual direction, counseling, and dinners.
A big part of why I am where I am today is because of my wife, JoAnn. She supported me and encouraged me every step of the way to come out of my shell, to learn to trust, to take risks, and she constantly challenged me to break out of my comfort zone. She modeled for me the act of giving of herself to others, especially our children. But not even just those closest to her.
She often would complement something someone was wearing in her everyday encounters, she loved to give little gifts, wrote simple notes of affirmation, and the embodiment of her selfless giving was in her final week of life when she made sure that the Hospice nurses caring for her had something to eat, to drink, and that they were warm enough because we had to keep the AC cool because of her spikes in temperature. She even insisted that one of the nurses wore one of her sweaters. I am confident that when JoAnn began her journey from this life to the next, God welcomed her with the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
That support continued during my time in the seminary. I was blessed with guidance, spiritual direction, support, acceptance, and love, along with the studies, deeper time of prayer, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and healing beyond anything I imagined possible when I first drove my truck through the open gates of St. Vincent de Paul Seminary. Resisting to bury my talent but again to invest for all it was worth has made all the difference.
We need not fear. Jesus does not expect too much of us. He invites, gives, and yes is demanding, but at the same time empowers and provides the support and energy we need to invest the talents given and to bring about a greater return. Our response is to allow the light of Jesus to shine through us as a prism in our own unique way that we may dispel any darkness and division in our realm of influence. As anxiety and fear may arise and seek to derail what God is calling us to do, may we embrace, breathe, rest, receive, and abide in God’s love and love God and each other. In the words of Jesus and St John Paul II who echoed them as he began his pontificate: “Be not afraid” (Mt 14:27). Let us use the time we have been given to invest our talents well.
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Photo: The talents Jesus gave me as I entered the gates of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary as a seminarian June 8, 2022, I invested and are being multiplied now. Prayers continuing for my SVDP family as they are revving up to start another year!!!
Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Probing the Authenticity of the Parables. Vol. 5. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
Spiritual Stepping Stones 