November 19, 2023
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 19, 2023 – Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30
Okay now, a little bit of math for the children. If one talent is worth a year’s wage, and a year’s wage is $100,000, and the man has five talents, how much money does he have to start with? If one talent is worth $100,000, and the man has five of them, how much money does he have to start with? “$1,005.” How much? “$1,005.” Nope. “$500,000.” If he makes five more talents while his boss is away, how much money does he have at the end? “One million.” A million talents! Holy cow! A million dollars! That’s an awful lot of money.
Now, if a man has two talents at the beginning, and each talent is worth $100,000, how much money does he have at the beginning? If each talent is worth $100,000, and he has two talents at the beginning, how much does he have? “$200,000.” $200,000. If he makes two more, how much does he have at the end? “$400,000.” $400,000. That’s a boat load of money too, isn’t it? $400,000. Right?
Now, if he has one talent, and it’s worth $100,000, and he buries it and then digs it up again, how much money does he got? If there is $100,000, and he buries it and then digs up it again, how much money has he got at the end? $100,000. That’s not bad. Why was the owner so angry? Hmm? A $1,000,000 was an awful lot of money, but so was $400,000, and $100,000 is nothing to sneeze at either. So, let’s take a look at what’s going on in this story.
We’re going to start with the first question I asked. What’s the connection between our First Reading and today’s Gospel? The First Reading was about a wife who does all the household chores, then spends her extra time knitting. And she has a little shop where she sells her knitting. Most people don’t like to hear this reading because it’s all tangled up with our modern view of women. But, when the Church put this reading in today’s Mass, the Church was not the least bit interested in the fact that she was a woman, or what she did in her house, or what she did in the marketplace except as those three things were connected to what was going on in this week’s Gospel and last week’s Gospel.
I bet none of you remember what happened in last week’s Gospel. In last week’s Gospel we had ten women who were bridesmaids and, because it was ancient times, there was no light outside. And, in order to light the way for the groom, they had to have lamps, and the lamps were fueled with oil. Five of the women brought extra oil in case their lamps went out, and five of the women didn’t and, sure enough, their lamps went out and they were in the dark.
The connection between the First Reading and the Gospel is what a person does with what they have. In the first story, the wife made an awful lot of good things for herself, her family, and her community with what she had. In the Gospel story, two of the three men make a lot of money with what they have for the good of others. So, that’s the first connection.
The second connection is between the woman in the first story this morning and the women in last week’s Gospel. The woman in today’s story does the right thing with her stuff. Five of the women in last week’s Gospel do the right thing with their stuff, and the other five do the wrong thing.
The last connection is between what happens at the end of last week’s Gospel and the end of this week’s Gospel. Last week’s Gospel, when the five women whose lamps went out finally buy more oil and get back to the wedding, the door is locked. They pound on the door and say, “Let us in. Let us in. We’re part of the wedding party.” And from inside, the groom says, “Go away. I don’t know who you are. I can’t see in the dark.” In today’s Gospel, at the end, what does the master do? He says, “Take away the $100,000 from that guy, and give it to the guy who got the million. Then throw him outside where it’s dark.” That’s the connection. The darkness outside. Seems kind of mean of Jesus to tell stories where someone gets punished like that doesn’t it? Hmm?
What are these stories about then? Well, when Jesus was alive, he worked for three years to tell people who he was, and how much God loved him. And he wanted people to notice. He had two bunches of people he was talking to. The first bunch was like you and me. They were already his followers. They were called disciples. Their job was to tell other people about Jesus. The other group of people that Jesus spoke to was people who had a long tradition of a good religion, but they didn’t understand it well. And Jesus wanted to get them to understand that he was everything they always hoped for in their religion. They only had three years to get it before he was going to leave.
Did you notice that, in today’s Gospel, the master gave out hundreds of thousand dollars and then he went away? He left. Last week’s Gospel, the groom took a long time coming back. All those stories are about when Jesus goes away, after the Resurrection.
So, when St. Matthew wrote his Gospel, it was almost a half a century, almost 50 years, from the time Jesus rose and went away. And the Christians of that time begin to wonder, “Is he ever coming back.” So, Matthew told these stories to get Christian people, like you and me, to remember who they were. They were people who had a great gift. The gift of Jesus present among them. And the grace received from Baptism. And the grace received every time we receive Holy Communion. And the grace received every time we go to Confession. And the grace we receive when we are anointed, if we are sick. And the grace we receive on our wedding day, as a promise to be in our marriage until one of us dies. And the grace we receive on the day we are made a priest. In all those graces, Jesus is present.
But he’s present for a reason. Did you notice what we sang at the beginning of Mass? “Christ has no body now but yours.” Jesus is not up in heaven, in some room someplace, in a nice fancy chair. Jesus is only here in you and me. That’s the only place the body of Jesus can be found. In Holy Communion, in the Bible, in the Church and in you and me. Whatever we do for other people, because you believe in Jesus, that is Jesus is doing it. Whatever you don’t do or were supposed to, that, unfortunately, is Jesus not here.
St. Matthew was very smart when he wrote his Gospel. He took a whole bunch of these stories about someone giving stuff and then going away. And he lined up all the stories together like dominoes. The very last story is about doing stuff for other people. And, it turns out, we did it for Jesus, himself.
So, this story is not about whether you are a good piano player or a good ball player or good at math. That’s not the kind of talents it’s about. It’s about the great gifts that God has given us so that we can be like Jesus in today’s world. We don’t have to worry about the darkness outside. That’s kind of a flourish at the end of the story. Okay. What we have to worry about is how well we are doing Jesus’ job, day by day.