Investing the Gold Coin of Worship, 33rd Wednesday (II), November 19, 2014

Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Bernadette Parish, Fall River, MA
Wednesday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
November 19, 2014
Rev 4:1-11, Ps 150, Lk 19:11-28

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• On Sunday, we had St. Matthew’s recollection of Jesus’ Parable of the Talents. Today we have St. Luke’s version of Jesus’ Parable of the Gold Coins. The essential message of the parables is identical, but the divergence in details shows that Jesus wasn’t using a script but varying the analogies according to audience.  We see something similar with the differences between the “Our Father’ in Matthew and Luke. Jesus wasn’t giving us a formula to pray but teaching us the essential attitudes and sometimes he would stress something more or less than another time. In this case, he was taking advantage of the well-known story of how after King Herod’s death, his kingdom was divided into three parts, but each needed to go to Rome to be confirmed by the emperor in the kingship. The king of Judah, Herod Archelaus, went to Rome but the people sent a delegation saying that they didn’t want him as king. The emperor confirmed him without the title king — he named him tetrarch — and upon the return, Archelaus executed those who didn’t want him to be king. In this month of November, in which we meditate on death and judgment, there’s a spiritual equivalent for those who don’t want to accept God as King. He doesn’t punish or slay them because in a sense he doesn’t have to: they’re already spiritually dead. But now let’s turn to the parable itself.
• What’s common between the parables of the talents and of the gold coins is that the king or master gives a treasure to his servants, expecting them to invest it and try to make a profit. There’s trust involved, there’s a test involved, and there’s an incredible reward involved, but he’s going to hold them to accountability. In the Parable of the Talents there are three servants, one given five talents (silver weighing 75 pounds each, worth 6,000 days wages), another two, and a third one. In the Parable of the Coins, he gives ten servants each one gold coin. In the first parable, the one invested with five makes five and the one invested with two makes two and the third just buries the coin. In the second parable, the first one makes ten, the second five, and the last just conceals the coin in a handkerchief (we don’t know what the other seven did). We see the incredible reward given in today’s parable to those who proved themselves trustworthy in these little matters, the one who made ten was entrusted with ten cities and the one who made five with five cities. But then in each parable we encounter someone who out of fear refused to invest the coin. On Sunday the Master in the parable called him a “wicked, lazy servant.” Today the king says, “With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant.” It would have been interesting if Jesus had given us the example of a servant who had tried to make a profit but actually lost money. My hunch is that the King and Master would have treated that servant rather well, since that would have been a result of bad luck or bad training. He may have been an incompetent servant or an unfortunate one, but he wouldn’t been lazy and wicked. The Lord is not necessarily asking us to be successful, but he certainly is asking us to make the effort.
• When we get to the most important talents or gold coin involved, however, it seems that it’s impossible not to “make a profit” if we actually make the effort to “trade” with it in life. The most important talent of all, as we pondered at length on Sunday, is God himself. We have the ability to pray to him and be guided each day, to enter into his life in the Sacraments, to enflesh his word in Sacred Scripture, to be strengthened by his Body the Church (the communion of saints in heaven, the presence of a family of faith here on earth, and the instruction of the magisterium), and to serve him in others. If we make the effort here, we will bear great dividends. Jesus promised us about prayer that the one who seeks finds, the one who asks receives and the one who knocks has the door opened. We could say that the one who invests God spiritually reaps a spiritual windfall. But we have to invest that relationship. The more we invest, the more we receive God’s guidance, the more we really allow him to transform us in sacramental encounters, the more we insert ourselves into the communion of holiness and charity, the more fruit we’ll bear.
• This leads us to the first reading from the Book of Revelation and the Psalm, which guide us very much about prayer, and especially about the most important form of prayer which is praise, adoration and blessing. Many times when we think of prayer we think first or sometimes exclusively about prayer of petition and intercession, asking God for things for ourselves or for others. But this is just a small part of prayer. We occasionally think about prayers of contrition, such as when we cry out, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.” As we approach the Feast of Thanksgiving next week, we can recall the importance of prayers of gratitude. But the most important part of prayer is prayer of praise, because in that type of prayer we’re essentially telling God how much we love him without any direct reference to ourselves, whether in gratitude for what he’s given us, in sorrow for what we’ve done wrong, or in request of what we or others need. Prayer of Praise is the most pure form of prayer because it’s focused essentially on God.
• In the Book of Revelation, we see what St. John witnessed in his vision when he looked through the open door of heaven and was shown what would happen. He saw God on his throne not appearing like a man but shining in complete radiance, sparkling like jasper, carnelian and an emerald halo. Around his thrown were 24 elders, who could represent the 12 major prophets and 12 apostles, or 12 tribes and 12 gentiles, but who represent basically everyone in heaven. Then there was a vision of the “four living creatures” with eyes in front and back for the beatific vision, seeing God from all angles. The first resembled a lion, the second an ox, the third had the face like a man and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight. These have been seen on the one hand as the pinnacle of creation — the lion is the king of beasts, the ox the sum of sacrifices, the eagle the lord of the air, and the human person, the summit of all of creation — or, taking from St. Ireneaeus’ second century reflections, the four Gospel writers, Mark (the lion, because he begins with Jesus’ royal proclamation as the Son of David and son of God), Luke (the ox because of the presence of ox and ass at Jesus’ birth), John (the eagle because of the soaring theology in his Gospel) and Matthew (the man with the face of an angel, because of his focus on Jesus as the Son of Man and all of the angels presence from the Nativity scene to the Garden of Gethsemane in his Gospel). I prefer the latter interpretation. We see that “whenever the four living creatures give glory and honor” to God, exclaiming, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty,” the 24 elders all fall down before him, worship him, throw down their crowns and say, “Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you have created all things, and by your will they came to be and were made.” St. John saw the Gospel writers praising God and then all the Jews and Gentiles, all the prophets and apostles, joined in that adoration and blessing.
• It’s key for us to invest the gold coin of this type of praise and adoration of the Lord. The Gospels still proclaim God’s glory and honor and power. We normally respond to them saying, “Thanks be to God,” and “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ,” and simply “Alleluia!,” which means, “Praise the Lord.” But many times those words come off our lips without the wonder and enthusiasm that doubtless marks the four living creatures and the 24 elders. We sing the “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts,” but without the passion and piety of the angels. Most of us don’t invest ourselves in this the way those on fire with love of God do, which is one of the reasons why our prayer, our assistance at Mass, our reception of Confession, our membership in the Church, our reading of the Word of God, our service to God’s people do not bear as much fruit in us as they do in others.
• Today the Psalm, in response to the first reading, puts on our lips the great words of the last Psalm, which has been set to music in some of the most joyous settings imaginable. It not only tells us how to praise God with all the instruments we have, but helps us to do so as we say the words: “Praise the Lord in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his strength, praise him for his mighty deeds, praise him for his sovereign majesty. Praise him with the blast of the trumpet, praise him with lyre and harp, praise him with timbrel and dance, praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with sounding cymbals, praise him with clanging cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Alleluia.” One of the most important ways  for us to invest ourselves more in the praise of God is actually to use the words of this Psalm, to use the words of the four living creatures, to use the phrases from the 24 elders.
• Today we come to Mass and the four living creatures have spoken to us of Christ who is worthy of all praise. That liturgy of the Word leads to the liturgy of the Eucharist where together with them we will pray, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Let us fall down with all the elders and say to God, “Worthy are you to receive glory and honor and power!” Worthy are you to receive praise in your sanctuary, in the firmament of your strength, for your mighty deeds and sovereign majesty, with the blast of the trumpet, with lyre and harp, timbrel and dance, strings and pipe, and clanging cymbals. Let not only everything that has breath praise the Lord, but let us use all our breath to praise him. Let us invest this Mass in such a way that Jesus will say to us, “Well done, good servant!”

The readings for today’s Mass were: