Sunday, November 13, 2011
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31 I Thessalonians 5:1-6 Matthew 25:14-30
When we hear the word “talent,” we most often think of it in terms of intellectual, artistic, or athletic ability. We speak of a “talented person” as being quite gifted, with many creative skills and a high “I.Q.” Talent searches are conducted to find just such capable people. It may be somewhat surprising, therefore, to realize that a “talent” in its original use, was a Roman coin.
Our present meaning of the word is then an analogy, drawn from Christ’s illustration in today’s Gospel Reading. So, we have generally understood this story in terms of a person’s intelligence, special aptitudes, and other personality factors. In this view, the interpretation we give the “Parable of the Talents,” is that the more gifted we are, the more we must achieve with these gifts whenever we hear this familiar story.
In sports we know how self-defeating it can be for a team or any individual player, to be too anxious about losing. In a similar way, as a result of industrial and highway studies, the term “accident proneness” was devised. It characterizes the person who, too worried about being involved in accidents, tends to have them. Similarly, athletes who are too cautious often lose in the last minutes, when with a little courage and daring, they might have won.
It is this self-defeating element of anxiety that Christ is also emphasizing today. Notice how the man with one talent projects his fear and anxiety—making the one in charge seem to him to be a tyrant. Setting such conditions up in his mind, then, in a way that the others did not, he scares himself into playing it “completely safe.” His distorted version of the situation was that he would please the master most, and do his best job, by taking no chances. As we know, this is the exact opposite of what the project was about.
The German word, “eng,” meaning narrow, catches the first sound of the “anxiety.” It suggests, therefore, that when we are trapped by an anxious state, we are, by our narrowed view, in danger of putting ourselves into a self-defeating system. This anxiety seems to be in all of us at a very deep level. It can even affect the attitude of a whole nation. This is why President Franklin Roosevelt will never be forgotten for his challenging words, during the dark days of the depression, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
This is then, one of the additional points in “The Parable of the Talents.” Faith is a leap, in the analogy of a trapeze act, and not clinging safely to the bar. Christ assures us here, that one of the major purposes of our lives is to invest in ourselves, and in others. We can be confident in what we are, and be certain of God’s strength and support in the midst of the risks we must take. “Do not be afraid,” was one of Jesus’ most common greeting. Loving us as he does, he greets us, too, with the same consoling reassurance.
Reflection Questions:
What talents has God entrusted to me?
My daily living and working is concerned about increasing these talents whenever I_____________ _______________________________________.
As I consider my God-given talents and my responsibilities to God and others, what causes me to live sometimes in “fear” or to be lazy?
What kind of God entrusts “his servants” with the kind of wealth depicted in the Gospel?
Fr. Joseph Manship
