The Christian community was emblematic of an inability to hold the tension of being here in this world and yet being ready for the next. They were waiting rather anxiously for the 2nd Coming and yet complacency managed to set in. The thinking was that the “here and now” was not important since Christ would be coming already. They were wrong and St Paul exhorted them to labour while at the same time be ready for the Lord’s coming.
In the Gospel, the three players represent the spectrum which marks humanity. Two of them are truly engaged and they are commended for their stewardship. However, one of them chooses the path of safety and self-interest over courage in the face of risk and self-sacrifice.
It is true that we are on a journey. It is a pilgrimage with an end but the terminus is not necessarily in sight. This means that the journey is filled with choices to be made. Here, the logic of the Parable sounds rather commercial. God invests and He collects the interest. But if we think of the talents not as investments but rather from the perspective of collaboration and gifts, then the scenario will look different. We are put into the world not as if it were a salt mine, to work and pay back. Rather, we enter the world in order to enrich it. The question is how we can cooperate with God in this enterprise.
The measure of a talent is important. Different interpreters will give different values for them. According to one commentator, if we were to calculate value, a talent is worth an incredible amount of money. So, the man who was entrusted with one mere talent was actually given that much to begin with. The immensity of that amount suggests that “talents” are beyond the personal exhibition of one’s abilities as per BGT or AGT. It is much more than “personal” expressions or ownership.
Instead the parable is focused on the stewardship of God’s graces and gifts and our accountability for what we have been blessed with. When we view stewardship in terms of ownership, narrow selfishness can creep in. We might view stewardship as developing one’s gifts for self-improvement or to enrich oneself. Development in itself is not a bad thing. But when we take “blessings” as “ours” or “mine”, in general, we become afraid of losing what we have and the result is “possessiveness”. By and large, the world regards the blessings of gifts and talents to be personal possessions.
But what if we were to consider that everything we own is on loan, would we be more willing to share and sacrifice? The oft-quoted saying, “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children” expresses the truth of living on borrowed time and space. If we were not caught up with being entitled, then the idea of stewardship can flow into an attitude of taking care of things that do not belong to us.
Thus, the first two servants were freer in the “divestment” of the talents simply because they were caretakers of God’s gifts. In the end, they went out and got more. If we are able to accept that talents are not personal wealth but their goal is to benefit all, then we might not be “selfish” in guarding our possessions. Instead, while waiting for the 2nd Coming, we begin to see where our talents can be best utilised for the furthering of God’s Kingdom.
In this enterprise, noteworthy for consideration is the widening chasm between the poor and the rich. The pandemic has enlarged the pool of poorer people. And a minority has benefitted from the industries surrounding the prevention of infection. For example, glove and mask manufacturers, not to mention the pharmaceuticals. A simplistic solution would be to force the rich should share their wealth with the poor. After all, the Church has adopted the option for the poor which places the onus on the rich to be generous in divesting their wealth. This remedy is a bit naïve and possibly superficial because what is not obvious in the stewardship of wealth is the necessity of prayer. It is readily forgotten that wealth is also a spiritual reality. The more we have, the more prayers we need because the wealthier we are, the more tempted we are to vain-glory and pride. If a person has more money, he or she will be tempted to acquire a newer model of cars or a fancier dress. The list for consumption is endless because people with extra disposable income are urged through advertisements to indulge in luxury. Again luxury is not wrong in itself. We should not criminalise prosperity because it is meant to be enjoyed.
However, as Christ Himself pointed out, possession is more than a material reality. When the Rich Young Man came to Jesus to ask what more he could do to gain eternal life, he had to turn away because he was rich and was unable to part with his wealth as suggested by Jesus. The solution to bridging the gap between rich and poor has to be a spiritual undertaking because wealth is more than a material issue. It is a deeply spiritual challenge. We pray that in the spiritual struggle of those who are rich that they may be helped by the Lord against the sin of selfishness and be blessed with spiritual strength to use their good fortune for furthering God’s Kingdom. It is not easy to part with even what is not ours or what is on loan to us. All the more we need to pray not just for the poor but also those who have been endowed with more that they may come to recognise and accept the responsibility of true and humble stewardship.
It is a blessing to be given much by the Lord but it is a greater blessing when we freely render to Him what was His in the first place. The Parable of the Talents remind us that right stewardship of God’s blessing, used in accordance with His will, will have a significant impact on the world, especially for those whom God has placed in our care and this will become clearer when we read next week’s Gospel. Stay tuned.
