So we are getting to the end of the parables in Matthew’s Gospel, and this one has always been one of my favorites, but I’ve found a new appreciation for it in looking for that twist.

 

Before we get there, we often think of talents as skills or abilities, God given usually, but in the time of Jesus, a Talent was a value of money.  A silver Talent would have been worth 20 years worth of wages, so in today’s terms, worth about a million dollars.  So the Master gives 5 million dollars, 2 million, and 1 million and goes away.

 

But this is not a parable about investing money, and we can tell that because when the Master returns, and the first two come back with additional talents, the Master said to them both “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.” Joy, not money.

 

On the flipside, when the wicked, lazy servant returns with just the original talent, the Master said, “throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” That expression is talking about Hell, or as we will hear in next week’s gospel, “eternal punishment, but the righteous go to eternal life.” So this parable, like most others, is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, and how to get there, or not.

 

But what about that twist?  Well, here is what I never noticed, when the lazy servant is giving his defense, he accuses him of being something he isn’t, he says to the Master, “I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.”

 

Now, if someone harvests where they did not plant, that basically means they are stealing from someone else, they are a thief.  And this is what this lazy servant thinks about the Master, that he is a thief who is demanding and unreasonable, unforgiving and selfish, not to be trusted, so his response is fear, so his response is to just do nothing but bury the money.

 

But the Master had given him a million dollars, clearly that is very generous, it would not have been hard to at the very least put the money in the bank to gain interest, but this lazy servant has such a distorted view of the Master that He wouldn’t even take the time to do that much, and that’s the twist, his perception of God is flawed from the start.  

What is our perception of God? How do we view Him?  I believe many people have a distorted, twisted view of God these days.  Sin distorts our view of God, we can see this beginning with Adam and Eve.  Immediately after they fall, they are afraid of God and they hide from Him, they no longer see Him as a generous father who wants to give them everything, rather, they see Him as a tyrant who is out to get them, someone to fear.

 

That’s what that lazy servant thought too.  But can God be a thief?  No, everything that exists is from Him, it all belongs to Him, even if we give Him something, we are simply giving it back to Him.  And I keep calling the servant lazy, but other translations call him slothful, so the sin that is going to keep this servant out of Heaven is spiritual sloth, it’s a sin of omission.  

 

I believe this is a huge issue in our society today, spiritual sloth, not only are there twisted views of God, people are too spiritually lazy, too slothful to even try to find the truth, to even take the time to get to know God.  But it is like any relationship in our lives. We might think all kinds of things about a person before we get to know them, but once we really make an effort, making space and investing time to get to know them, usually our opinions change, our walls of fear come down, we begin to trust, we might even begin to love.

 

Try this: the next time someone tells you they don’t believe in God, ask them to describe the God they don’t believe in… my guess is you wouldn’t believe in that God either.  Then proceed to tell them about the God we know: a generous Father, forgiving, merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness, loving, patient, who wants a relationship with us, wants our friendship, wants us in Heaven with Him, wants us to share in His joy.

 

I believe a big key to this whole talent thing is that God wants us to share in His mission of saving souls. Once we truly know Him and trust Him and (dare I say) love Him, it is then that He gives us an opportunity to participate in Salvation History, helping others to know Him too.  

 

This parable is what pushed me to quit my high paying work in Des Moines to come to Dubuque for higher spiritually paying work - in my time there I had invested and developed a deep relationship with God, and, in love and trust, I could leave that behind for what He was calling me to do, to use my talents and abilities to help others know of God’s love for them, especially encountering Jesus in the sacraments.

 

Jesus Christ has done the hard work on the cross, really, all we have to do is take our talents, whatever that is, and help others to know of God’s love for them, sharing with them who God truly is, and inviting them deeper.  

 

We were created for this moment. There is something out there that only you can do.  There is someone out there that only you can reach with the Good News of God’s love for them. 

 

How is God inviting you to use your talents?  How is God calling you to share His love with those around you?  It might seem safer or easier to be spiritually slothful, to bury our talent in the ground and make a defense for ourselves at the end, but why?  

 

(So God is not a thief, but our second reading did talk about a thief, St. Paul said, “For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.” The day of the Lord is our death, right?  Or it is when Jesus comes back, but either way, it will be like a thief that we do not expect.  But we all know we are going to die. We all know we are going to meet the Lord at some point, why don’t we just make good use of the time we have.

 

Paul goes on to say “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief… Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.” St. Paul is warning us against falling asleep, spiritual sloth as well. The Master will return, we should be ready and make the most of this time.) 

 

God is giving us the time to get to know Him now.  God is giving us the resources.  Just think, we live in a time in history where we are all literate, we can all read and we all have bibles and access to Catholic.com right in our pockets to give us the answers to the stuff we don’t know…  It has never been easier!  

 

I read through Acts of the Apostles last week on retreat, focusing on Sts. Peter and Paul, just thinking about all they suffered to spread the Good News, persecuted at every turn, and the early Church along with them - we’ve never had it so good, yet we waste time, we are spiritually slothful towards our God who just wants us to choose to know Him in this life, and spend eternity with Him in the next.

 

God has given us the abilities and talents we need to know Him and to help others know Him.  It is not something to fear, rather, it will be the source of our joy, here and for eternity, if we are willing to invest our lives in Him.