DAILY GOSPEL COMMENTARY.
THE PARABLE OF TALENTS (Mt 25:14-30).
GOSPEL OF SATURDAY, 21ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
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. After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ 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.’ His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’”
COMMENTARY FROM THE NAVARRE BIBLE, ST. MATTHEW (WITH PERMISSION)
- 14-30 A talent was not any kind of coin but a measure of value worth about fifty kilos (one hundred pounds) of silver.
- In this parable the main message is the need to respond to grace by making a genuine effort right through one’s life. All the gifts of nature and grace which God has given us should yield a profit. It does not matter how many gifts we have received; what matters is our generosity in putting them to good use.
- A person’s Christian calling should not lie hidden and barren: it should be outgoing, apostolic and self-sacrificed. “Don’t lose your effectiveness; instead, trample on your selfishness. You think your life is for yourself? Your life is for God, for the good of all men, through your love for our Lord. Your buried talent, dig it up again! Make it yield” (J. Escrivá, Friends of God, 47).
- An ordinary Christian cannot fail to notice that Jesus chose to outline his teaching on response to grace by using the simile of men at work. Here we have a reminder that the Christian normally lives out his vocation in the context of ordinary, everyday affairs. “There is just one life, made of flesh, and spirit. And it is this life which has to become, in both soul and body, holy and filled with God. We discover the invisible God in the most visible and material things. There is no other way. Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find him” (J. Escrivá, Conversations, 114).
VIDEO COMMENTARY
TOPIC: DO YOU LOVE WITH WORDS OR DO YOU LOVE “IN-DEED?”
Today’s readings talk to us about our love that makes us do all the things we should to manifest that love. The gospel reading is all about three men given huge sums of money – then called talents – to steward while their rich master went on a journey. He comes back after many years and finds two of his servants doubling the money he had left them with. But one servant simply gave him back the money he was left with. He praises the first two but angrily banishes the third servant. In the first reading, Paul urges the Thessalonians to continue loving one another by living quietly and be at peace with one another, to earn a living using their talents and to mind their own affairs and not to meddle in those of others.
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