Trustworthiness!

Saturday, August 31, 2024

1 Cor 1:26-31; Mt 25:14-30

Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on trustworthiness as a Kingdom virtue.

The parable of the talents explains trustworthiness in terms of the responsibility for what we have received from God. 

It is good to note that the master who entrusts his servants with talents does not tell them what to do with them. However, the servants who received five and two talents respectively, multiplied what they each received without being told to do so. 

While the servants are given the freedom to put their talents to good use, their trustworthiness is measured depending on their wisdom and hard work to multiply them. 

The last servant has no idea about the one talent he received. But his lack of idea or vision does not mean that he did not have the ability to multiply his talent. The Gospel clearly mentions that the talents were given to each ‘according to his ability.’ 

The fact that the three servants were given differing numbers of talents provides ample evidence to the fact that the individual capability was assessed well by their master.

The first two servants, who received five and two talents respectively, let their light shine brightly, and their ability to multiply their talents comes as a testament to their wisdom and toil. As a result of their success, they enter into their master’s joy, and joy enters into them. 

But the last servant who buried his light only enters into darkness, and darkness enters into him. While he lacks the gratitude to recognize the goodness of the master who trusted him with his talents, he who is lazy makes his master appear wicked. The problem is that he is not bothered by the fact that he cannot do anything about the talent he was given by his master. Instead, he justifies his laziness and does not hesitate to portray the good master in a bad light. 

We must note that the last servant was counted trustworthy by his master, though he fails to prove his trustworthiness. His laziness, risk aversion, and doubtfulness caused his fall.

That God has created us provides us enough reason for God’s trust in us. 

Who we are is God’s gift. What we become is our gift to God. 

Let us pray that we may prove ourselves to be trustworthy, just in the way God wants us to be. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar