Nov. 17, 1996 Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Mt 25, 14-30

SEVERAL QUESTIONS come to mind as we listen to the Lord's parable today about a discriminating man entrusting his assets to lowly servants. The story strikes us as unusual. Yet, God does the same with us: He invests us with His divine wealth and resources. The parable at root challenges us to believe in God's prerogative to make us partners in His grace and blessings. We are called to have confidence in what God has confided to us.

This “handing over”of funds—an action that reminds us of Jesus being handed over to His enemies in death—takes place with great deliberation and expectation on the part of the Master. He gives out predetermined amounts of money proportionate to “each man's abilities.”In other words, God gives us gifts commensurate to our own endowments, so that grace might perfect nature. The responsibility for the Master's assets in our life is not an obstacle, but rather an incentive to develop, nurture, and perfect our personal capacities. Divine grace acting like “capital,”we are blessed with the power to attain the personal fulfillment, completion, and excellence that we long for. Moreover, divinely bestowed gifts alert us to real abilities that we never thought we had.

The Master's charge to us, His servants, comes with certain expectations: The bestowal of heavenly holdings reveals the image of God at work within us; and they equip us for action that imitates the very ways of the Master. God, who creates out of nothing, calls us to “reap where we did not sow”by fully realizing the sacred “collateral”we have been entrusted. We do so by relying on our faith and so learn to become unfailingly dependable regarding even the small matters that come our way—a practice that prepares us for much larger responsibilities. We live in hope that refuses to give in to the fear, futility, and dread that would otherwise lead us to bury God's graces in the ground. We fire our desire to grow rich in the love of God. We can never get enough of that wealth. But the only force that ensures its constant increase is our desire for God's love to be the priority and the summit of our life. The moment we cease wanting God's love more than before, the moment we let our ardor reach a plateau, is the moment that we “will lose even the little that we have.”

Finally, God confers His self-worth upon us to persuade us how much He desires for us to “share the Master's joy.”God delights in our success, especially as it reflects the courage, trust, and devotion with which we respond to His gifts in our life. He does not need us to increase his wealth or property. Rather, He invites us to be industrious, creative, and enterprising so that through that experience we might have a deeper understanding and more thorough enjoyment of Him.

Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., teaches homiletics at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.