33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr A
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr A
19 Nov 2017
Homily
I always found it amusing when I was studying, that one self-acclaimed feminist found today’s First Reading from wisdom to be sexist! I could never see how describing a good wife as being “far beyond pearls” as being a putdown on women?
Anyway, in today’s Gospel Matthew is continuing his discussion and reflection on how to live a Christian life while waiting for Jesus’ return, something that we also need to regularly reflect upon ourselves.
Again we have the master being away, with the servants acting in his absence. Again as so often with Matthew, they are not all successful. One of Matthew’s regular themes is that the community is open to all; some will – inevitably – fail, but God calls all. And it is for God to judge, not us.
Now a talent was around 30 kg of silver, so the sums he is talking about is wealth far beyond any experience anyone in Matthew’s community is likely to have had! It is massively, almost obscenely so, wealth. Of course, for Matthew and his community, that is what Jesus’ call is. God’s call to us is something incredibly precious.
As a child, I found the treatment of the last servant rather confusing. I thought “What had he done that was so wrong?”
But of course, the wealth Jesus is talking about here id Faith and how we live it. If we live our faith authentically, then it must have an effect on our behaviour. Authentic Faith is not something to be kept private.
There is a strong push in our society to keep Faith exactly there, private and without any effect on the public square. That was the failing of the last servant. He had kept his faith private. He failed to bring it into his life, out of fear.
Where is Faith in our lives? Have we ever kept quiet for fear of other’s reactions?
In this Gospel passage, which servant is you?