Posted by The WORD in other words by Fr Antolin Uy SVD – Divine Word Seminary, Tagaytay City
We wonder why the servant who hid and preserved the talent is thrown out “into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth?” Was he not following the mind of the master? Is not the master rather unjust?
The parable is not about watchfulness and preparedness and keeping the literal meaning of a law (like the scribes and pharisees); also not about truth and justice. It talks of dedication to duty and work, of foresight, of responsibility that is both conscientious as well as imaginative. Opportunities should lead to further opportunities. When money is entrusted to us it is not just kept safe but made productive, placed in circulation and invested. This is true of our faith
Christianity has never ceased to grow; similarly, our faith. For as long as we live, we live to grow and to be productive. Our faith’s preservation does not depend on its security of inaction. We have to be enterprising, or we will be cast “into the outer darkness.”
Our faith carries an element of adventure; it is a risk. For what then is the presence of the Holy Spirit in us? The paradox is that to make it productive we have to give it away. We have to let the faith grow in us and in others. Our faith is fully ours as we share it with others.
The unfortunate servant of the Gospel wanted to remain safe. He was, to use a theological term tutiorista (on the safer side); at the same time, he was an egoist seeking only to save his own skin. He never thought what the talent was given for. We are stewards of our talents, never the owner. All that we have comes from God, at out disposal according to his plan.
Pope Benedict XVI warned us of the “dictatorship of relativism” in which everything is fluid and nothing permanent. Man is the measure of everything and reason is the measure of man. God in no way relates to us. We cannot do it alone. Without God we are nothing; without Him we can do nothing.
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