33rd Sunday in OT, Nov 16, 2008 – Mediocrity or Greatness

Scripture Readings
First Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Second 1 Thes 5:1-6
Gospel Matthew 25:14-30

Prepared by: Fr. Jonathan Kalisch, OP

1. Subject Matter
 Constant watchfulness for the coming of the Son of Man is necessary. Jesus uses the
parables of the two servants (Mt 24:45-51), the ten maidens (Mt 25:1-13) and here of the
talents. Here the point is responsible activity in face of Christ‟s return. The demand is for
positive action as opposed to fearful or lazy inaction.
 The return of the Master and the accounting we must give for all that we are stewards of: will
we settle for the mediocrity of minimalism or strive for the magnanimity of greatness with the
gifts we have been given?
2. Exegetical Notes
 The Master is away on a journey, and after a long time, returns to settle accounts and invite
those who have acted positively to share in his joy.
 One talent was equivalent to the wage of an ordinary worker for 15 years. Ancient custom
saw the burial of money as the best security against loss – with whoever buries the money
free from liability.
 While the third servant acted with caution to guard his master‟s money, he did so out of fear
that the master was harsh. However, we have just seen how generous the master was to the
first two servants – admitting them into his intimate joy. It is true that the final servant has
lost nothing, but he has also gained nothing.
 Mt. uses weeping and gnashing of teeth elsewhere to describe the frustration of those
excluded from the joy of the master. See Mt 8:12; 3:42, 50; 22:13; and 24:51. Punishment
for the infidelity of not using and thus allowing one‟s talents to fall into disuse, is as severe as
the punishment for more freely-chosen sins.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

CCC # 546: Jesus' invitation to enter his kingdom comes in the form of parables, a characteristic
feature of his teaching. Through his parables he invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but
he also asks for a radical choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give everything. Words are not
enough, deeds are required. The parables are like mirrors for man: will he be hard soil or good
earth for the word? What use has he made of the talents he has received? Jesus and the
presence of the kingdom in this world are secretly at the heart of the parables. One must enter
the kingdom, that is, become a disciple of Christ, in order to "know the secrets of the kingdom of
heaven". For those who stay "outside", everything remains enigmatic.

CCC # 852: The Holy Spirit is the protagonist, “the principal agent of the whole of the Church‟s
mission.” It is he who leads the Church on her missionary path. “…so the Church, urged on by
the Spirit of Christ, must walk the road Christ himself walked, a way of poverty and obedience, of
service and self-sacrifice even to death, a death from which he emerged victorious by his
resurrection.” So it is that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.”

CCC # 1029: In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God's will in relation to
other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ; with him "they shall reign for ever
and ever."
CCC #1936: On coming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for
developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical
abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the
distribution of wealth. The "talents" are not distributed equally.
CCC # 1937: These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs
from others, and that those endowed with particular "talents" share the benefits with those who
need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity,
kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures.

4. Patristic Commentary
 St. Augustine: “The whole wickedness of that servant who was reprobate and severely
condemned, was that he would not put out his money to use. He kept the entire sum he had
received; but the Lord looked for profit from it. God is covetous with regard to our salvation. If
he who did not put out to use is so condemned, what must they look for who lose what they
have received?”
 Gregory: “To hide one's talent in the earth is to devote the ability we have received to
worldly business.”
 Origen: “This servant seems to me to have been one of those who believe, but do not act
honestly, concealing their faith, and doing every thing that they may not be known to be
Christians. They who are such seem to me to have a fear of God, and to regard Him as
austere and implacable. We indeed understand how the Lord reaps where He sowed not,
because the righteous man sows in the Spirit, whereof he shall reap life eternal. Also He
reaps where He sowed not, and gathers where he scattered not, because He counts as
bestowed upon Himself all that is sown among the poor.”
 Gregory: “Let him then who has understanding look that he hold not his peace; let him who
has affluence not be dead to mercy; let him who has the art of guiding life communicate its
 use with his neighbor; and him who has the faculty of eloquence intercede with the rich for
the poor. For the very least endowment will be reckoned as a talent entrusted for use.”
 St. John Chrysostom: “But let us see what sort of wisdom he then demands. He calls it the
wisdom „of a serpent.‟ The serpent abandons everything, even if its body has to be cut off,
and does not resist much, provided only it can save its head. In the same way, he says,
abandon everything except your faith, even it if means giving you your wealth, your body,
your life itself.”
5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars
 St. Catherine of Sienna spent years in the seclusion of prayer in her room, until the Lord
appeared and showed her that she had to leave her withdrawn life and enter the public world
to serve the ill and the poor. In the Dialogues, St. Catherine heard God say: “I distribute the
virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to
others. . . . I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a
living faith to that one. . . . And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and
temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that
you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another. . . . I have willed that one
should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts
they have received from me.”

6. Quotes

 Pope Benedict XVI: “Each life has its own calling. It has its own code and its own path.
None is just an imitation, stamped out along with a mass of other identical ones. And each
one requires the creative courage to live one‟s life, and not just to turn oneself into a copy of
someone else.”
 Pope Benedict XVI: “The parable of the lazy servant, who buried his talent so that nothing
could happen to it…Here is someone who will not take the risk of living his life in its originality
and letting it develop; or of exposing it to the dangers that necessarily arise with that…”
 Luigi Giussani: “We can do many things, but their pedagogical fruitfulness will not have a
Christian measure…one can even die for others and not have love, and thus be worth
nothing; that is, when we sacrifice ourselves to affirm our own ideas or to follow a feeling,
and not out of devotion to the Being who reaches out to us; when we share our things,
perhaps even our lives, without truly sharing ourselves; when we rid ourselves of everything
without losing ourselves.”

7. Other Considerations
 In the face of the generosity of God who bestows upon us every gift, we can either give them
back to Him by using them to build up the Kingdom – and thereby strive for the greatness we
are called to - or we can bury them through our self-indulgence, laziness, fear, or greed (and
achieve the mediocrity of our selfishness.

Recommended Resources
Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI, ed. by Peter John Cameron, OP. Magnificat,
2006.
John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer, Hamden, CT:
Circle Press, 2007.
The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 8, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995.
http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerus/index_fra.html