Investing the Talent of the Mass, Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), November 13, 2011 Audio Homily

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. Anthony of Padua Church, New Bedford, MA

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

November 13, 2011

Prov 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1Thess5:1-6; Mt 25:14-30

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click at the bottom of the page. The following text guided this homily:

INVESTING THE TALENT OF THE MASS

• Three years ago, Pope Benedict, in his Angelus address given on the Sunday when this morning’s Gospel was proclaimed, gave a great summary of the meaning of this parable:
  • “The ‘talent’ was an ancient Roman coin, of great value, and precisely because of this parable’s popularity it became synonymous with personal gifts, which everyone is called to develop. In fact, the text speaks of ‘a man going on a journey [who] called his servants and entrusted to them his property’ (Matthew 25: 14).
  • The man in the parable represents Christ himself, the servants are the disciples and the talents are the gifts that Jesus entrusts to them. These gifts, in addition to their natural qualities, thus represent the riches that the Lord Jesus has bequeathed to us as a legacy, so that we may make them productive: his Word, deposited in the Holy Gospel; Baptism, which renews us in the Holy Spirit; prayer, the ‘Our Father’ that we raise to God as his children, united in the Son; his forgiveness, which he commanded be offered to all; the Sacrament of his Body sacrificed and his Blood poured out; in a word: the Kingdom of God, which is God himself, present and alive in our midst.
  • This is the treasure that Jesus entrusted to his friends at the end of his brief life on earth. Today’s parable stresses the inner disposition necessary to accept and develop this gift. Fear is the wrong attitude: the servant who is afraid of his master and fears his return hides the coin in the earth and it does not produce any fruit. This happens, for example, to those who after receiving Baptism, Communion and Confirmation subsequently bury these gifts, …thus betraying the Lord’s expectations. However, the parable places a greater emphasis on the good fruits brought by the disciples who, happy with the gift they received, did not keep it hidden with fear and jealousy but made it profitable by sharing it and partaking in it. Yes, what Christ has given us is multiplied in its giving! It is a treasure made to be spent, invested and shared with all
• Often as Pope Benedict said, we can think about this parable just in terms of what we are to do with our natural talents or gifts, our singing, artistic or athletic ability, our intelligence and our work skills, our money and material resources, our health, our family, our life. But the far more important talents are:
  • The ability to talk to him in prayer and receive from him guidance in life.
  • The sacraments, whereby we encounter him.
  • The Bible, where his Word is given to us.
  • The Church, particularly the teachings of the magisterium.
• Today I’d like to focus, very briefly because of the video being shown before or after Mass, specifically on the talent of the Mass. The Mass is the very gift where Jesus illumines us with his word and feeds us with himself. There’s no greater talent in the world.
  • The ancient Egyptians, with all their skills, had nothing like this.
  • The Buddhists, with their teaching on the path to wisdom through suffering, have nothing close to this.
  • The Muslims, with the seeds of the Gospel they have and their willingness to make a commitment to God, have nothing like this.
  • The Jews, with the gift of the Covenant, have nothing like this.
  • The Protestants, for all their fire and love for the Word of God, have nothing like this.
  • This is the greatest gift in the world, the greatest talent, Jesus himself.
• The question for us is what are we doing with it. To whom more is given, more is to be expected. Others may have been given one talent or two, but we’ve been not only five but fifty. How are we responding? What fruit does the Mass bear in our lives? What type of investment do we make with this gift?
• The new English translation of the Mass, which we are hearing about before and after Mass and will begin to use in two weeks, is meant to help us to pray the Mass better, which is a start, but the key for us is to live the Mass, to make our life a Mass, to receive this treasure of the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist and let him transform us. One Mass, St. John Vianney, used to say has the power to make us a saint. He would lament, however, that so few take advantage of the Mass. They bury the treasure of the Mass. Or at most they receive the gift only one of the seven days they live. Is that the way to bear greatest fruit from this gift? St. John Vianney said that they would become very holy if only they came to receive the Lord more often with greater love.
• The Lord wants us to bear dividends from the Mass. For that to occur, we need to prepare well. We need to celebrate the Mass well, pouring ourselves into it. We need to let that Mass continue to change us.
• At the end of time, the Lord will say one of two things to us.
  • Either, “Well, done, Good and Faithful Servant. You have been faithful in little things. Now I will entrust you with greater responsibilities. Come share your master’s joy.”
  • Or, with great pain and disappointment, “You wicked, lazy, worthless servant. Cast him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
• All of us want to hear the first, for which our ears were made. Let us ask God to make us faithful with respect to the Mass so that he joyfully may entrust us heaven.

The readings for today’s Mass were:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download