Click here for today’s Scripture readings.
1 Cor 1:26-31
Mt 25:14-30
Come on, get on with it! we tell people who are down in the dumps because of one thing or another. Get a life! It’s not good to stop living.
In St. Matthew’s gospel, which we read today, Jesus says the same thing in the parable of the talents. “You have gifts from God; keeping using them.”
It’s a timely reminder, because in this last part of Matthew’s gospel dramatic things are taking place. Jesus and his disciples have come to Jerusalem into a firestorm of opposition. Jesus himself announces the coming of a new age; the temple of God, symbol of Jewish stability, is fated for destruction. The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give light, stars will fall from the skies.
Dramatic days! They could leave the disciples breathless, or at least captivated by the future before them. And so Jesus returns to his great teaching on living life now. You have been given talents by God; use them till he comes.
Notice in the parable that the one who buries the talent is treated most severely. Hiding his gift in the field, he does nothing. But nothing is not the thing to do in life. You have to do, think, say what you can. Doing nothing isn’t an option for someone made in the image of God who created the heavens and the earth.
- Fr. Victor Hoagland, C.P.
