Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today’s gospel is wonderful, and it gives me a lot of joy. But first we must clarify some ideas so that we don’t misunderstand the point of the gospel. The talents are not the gifts we have received from God, like the ability to sing or to be good at math or whatever. It is not about how God gives abundantly to some and not to others. It does not matter what number of talents you received whether it is five, two or one. The man who received one hid it because he was afraid; he was afraid of the Lord, so he did not put the talent to work. In fact, he said to the master: ‘Here, you can have your talent back.’ This is serious because the one who received a talent did not take it as his own. He said it is not mine; it’s yours, take it back.
The point is not how much he has received. The main idea of the parable is what do you give back to the Lord? What is the talent the Lord left us before he ascended into heaven? It is his love for us. We can think that God perhaps loved certain people in a special way; they were his favorites. And maybe with ourselves we sense that he loved us less. But the fact is the Lord loves us and he cannot cease to love us. He has given us at least one talent.
I like the expression when he told the servant: why did you not at least put it in the bank so that on my return I could have received it back with interest? I don’t know how you react to God’s love for you. He loves you madly and continues to love you like crazy even today. He does this so that you can give your life for others, so that you can be faithful in your marriage, you can be patient with your kids as God has been patient and good with you. He loved us so we can accept illness with joy, so that you don’t sue the other who did an injustice to you, so you can turn the other cheek, so you can love the enemy. This is what this talent can earn. You gave me five and I earned you five more.
It is impressive because the Lord says that he gives talents to us according to our capacity. He does not give us something beyond our capacity or ask us for anything over and above it. Notice the one who received five did not give back ten or twenty to the master. He returns the same amount that was given to him. The servant is saying you have given me this love and look I am loving you back this much in return. He who received two, gave two back.
There are some who are weak, very poor, like us, and the Lord says well at least put it in the bank. Put the talent in the bank. What is the bank? It is the Christian community, the Church. If you put this love in your community, in your ‘bank’ you don’t have to do anything, and it will grow. For us poorer ones we find it difficult to love, or there are people that we cannot forgive, or it is often difficult to enter into God’s will. So put the money in the bank, in the community where it can generate interest without you noticing it. When you put it in the bank, you don’t have to do anything, and it produces a little more. This is the important point of today’s gospel.
Many of you here today may not know what a community is. The parish today is not a community because we don’t know each other. I cannot say the ones here at this Mass are a community because in a community we would know one another; we would know what makes the other suffer; we would know the weaknesses of the other. I cannot love what I do not know. And in the community this love is lived in a concrete way. Jesus says love as I have loved you. Look how they loved one another said the gentiles about the early Christians. They had never seen this kind of love before. In some sense, they loved as Christ loved. It was a revolutionary kind of love. No one had loved like this until Christ came. No one had ever loved the enemy in this way.
This is only possible if you have Christ within you. Then you can love your spouse, your children; you can give your life for them. This kind of love is exclusive to Christians. The Lord has given this to you so that you can give it back to him. The Lord is wonderful in this way. There is not just one type of Christian community. There are many communities where we can live the faith. But it is very difficult to love and so we need to put this money in the bank.
You have to be a person that God has truly loved deeply with a special grace to be able to give the five talents that he gave to you without putting them in the bank. These are the saints who even without a community the Lord has deeply touched them. They are excellent negotiators of the love of God.
The Lord does not ask for things too great. He does not ask you to go on mission to Africa. I don’t know if you are a super-apostle or super-catechist. If not, then put the talent in the bank, in the community. This is why it is so important to be in a community, in small groups, if you want to call it that. To live the faith in small groups where you can love one another, where you can receive the sacraments, where the Holy Spirit can be present in your lives, where you can receive the forgiveness of the Lord and his mercy. It is a place to put your talent to work without doing anything, with doing very little. You need only to let yourself be loved by the Lord and the talent will transform your life, little by little.