More on talents and gifts

The readings this morning at the liturgy echoed those of Sunday — the story of the talents, as told this time in Luke’s gospel. The parable in Luke starts out differently than in Matthew, and so sets different parameters.

A nobleman went off to a distant country
to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.
He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins
and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’
His fellow citizens, however, despised him
and sent a delegation after him to announce,
‘We do not want this man to be our king.’
But when he returned after obtaining the kingship,
he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money,
to learn what they had gained by trading.

Ten servants; ten coins; clear directive: engage in trade with these; clear timeframe: until I return; clear context: his fellow citizens despised him.

Well, on his return, the noble men checks to see how the trade has gone. Each servant has received one gold coin, and the first comes back with 10 while the second comes back with 5. We do not hear of all ten servants, but we meet the third, who buried it.

In the Matthean account (Mt 25:14-30), the servants had been entrusted with talents according to their ability; in the Lukan account (Lk 19:11-28), each is given one gold coin. And the consideration today (perhaps because we heard this parable after hearing the message from the Book of Revelation) centered on this parable as a response to the early Christian community that wondered what to do to prepare for the Return of Christ in Glory. Do not just wait around. Do not hide yourselves. I have given you something precious: go out and “engage in trade with these until I return.”

What does this mean for the Church then? And what does it mean for the individual Christian? It is not about individualized survival: it is about making the Gospel known, letting it traffic, engaging it in the market place, letting the sum of it change and grow in the give and take between the servant and the merchants, between the Christian and the surrounding culture, between the Church and the Contemporary World. And the rendering of account at the end of time, when the “nobleman”, Christ, returns, will be based on this engagement.

This reminds me of the Vatican II’s pastoral constitution on the Church and the Contemporary World, Gaudium et Spes. We are not to hide from life; we are not to flee the world. We are instead to take stock of our being of the same stuff as the world, and of engaging the world in God’s word… in Gospel. After all, the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ (GS§1).

Lots to reflect on today — and all this happened before the first cup of caffelatte.