Don't Bury Talents

One of the awesome qualities of the prophets is that they could not be quiet.  Life would have been much easier, much more gentle, if they would not have spoken as much as they did.  But, that is the mandate of the prophet.  To recognize Sin and Evil and to speak about it.  The curious thing about today's Gospel is that the third servant recognizes the harshness of his master, so he safeguards the treasure he has received.  We might look at this and wonder what the problem is.

The point of the Gospel today is that this man did nothing at all.  The first and second servants were willing to take a risk and invested the master's talents.  Saints, disciples, and prophets, are all willing to take risks, and to take responsibility with what they have been given.  The Apostles will sometimes confuse being a follower of Jesus as a pathway to power and glory.  Jesus reminds them from time to time that to have authority means that  one takes responsibility and serves those entrusted to them.  What we have been given is present so as to do good and build up the community in which we live.

Certainly this week the Penn State scandal is fresh on every one's mind.  A simple phone call, a follow-up, becoming filled with righteousness, would have solved a lot of problems.  Like the third servant we can sometimes run away in fear or uncertainty.  Or worse yet, we declare that the brokenness, or evil, or even the Sin we observe, is really not our problem.  And we walk away.  Truly we might not be responsible for the War of 1812, but human dignity, respect, creation, faith, and holiness, are very much our responsibility.

To be sure the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah can serve as excellent models for us.  But men and women like Dorothy Day, Frances Cabrini, and Oscar Romero, make us pause and consider what is of value and of truth.  There words and wisdom is very much like the reading from Proverbs today, in which we possess the heart of good, and work at maintaining a holy and healthy household.  These folks demonstrate to us that religion cannot be lived out of fear and anxiety.

Faith only makes sense when it is lived in a spirit of love.  God bestows upon us every good thing.  We share what we have received in love and in justice.  We are to speak the truth and offer a blessing rather that a curse.  This is all part of the discipleship which we are called to.  We can never be afraid in doing what is right.