My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the 33rd Sunday in ordinary time year A. Late November last year, we began a new liturgical year with the season of advent. During the calendar year, we celebrated series of festivities about the mystery of our faith. As the current liturgical year is coming to the end, the holy mother, by her tradition and the word of God, reminds us of a dictum, that whatever has a beginning, has an end. That is the principle of life, that is how the church activities move every year. And so, the readings of this liturgy, in connection with the gospel of last Sunday touched one of the four last things waiting for everyone of us-the judgement. Hence, we are being reminded to make proper use of our time and talent, so that, we can render befitting accounts at the Lord’s return. In our gospel reading, St Mathew describes vividly the kingdom of God with imageries that compare the kingdom to a relationship between a man and his servants. It can be said that, the man knows his servants well and entrusted his property to them, each in proportion to his ability. He sent them on a mission by entrusting his treasure to each of them accordingly. In his gospel account, St. Mathew tells us that total number of talents the man distributed to his servants were eight, which is a symbol of a new beginning. And so, by distributing eight talents to his servants, the master intended to inaugurate a completely new relationship with each of his servants. We realised from the narrative how each of the three servants treated the talents given to him, marked a turning point in each servant’s relationship with his master. At the master’s return from his journey, two servants did well and one did not. From this parable, we may realise that God’s standard of judgement on each of us will depend on how well we utilise the talents given to us. The talents are the qualities, and the different gifts every one of us is blessed with-our intelligence and so on. The journey of the master signifies the duration of life here on earth, when every servant has to implement what he learnt from the master. The return of the master signifies the end of time. The settling of accounts is the nature of judgement we shall face at end of time. The master is Christ Jesus. Today, Christ is giving us a challenge to prove ourselves good and faithful servants for the gifts he has entrusted to us. He is telling us to have faith and make faith-based decisions, to act and act boldly on faith. He is telling us that faith is not something we can get and keep to ourselves. It is not something we can hide, clutch, and hold only unto ourselves. It needs to be invested in the lives of others and thereby multiplied. Only then can it be possibly bearing fruits. We need to know that every one of us, falls under one of the three servants of the generous God, because, we have been entrusted with talents to be administered according to the Lord’s intention. Time, energy, intelligence, health, knowledge, science and wealth are talents received from the master and creator of the universe. These talents are meant for prompt investment. At opportune times, reports of how the talents had been invested and difficulties encountered and accounts of profits made must be rendered to the owner of the talents. Today, our Lord is reminding us that we do not own what we have. Each gift we possess is for the good of others. We are stewards entrusted with God’s property, in the form of various gifts. A day will come when we shall render account of our stewardship. What a great honor awaits those servants who did not betray the master’s trust!
