33rd Sunday—Homily by Fr Joachim
Today we hear about the fellow who buried his talent in the ground. He denied the living reality of the kingdom. He hid what he was meant to manifest to all. He put his lamp under a bushel basket. He refused his mission to proclaim the kingdom of God. He did not know the gift of God. He would not come to the light, so he was cast into the outer darkness. He would not sing for joy, so he must wail for sorrow.
Paul warns us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, suddenly, unexpectedly, when we think that all is well. Therefore, we must be alert and sober.
The Day of the Lord is coming indeed. When? We do not know. And yet we must be ready. How?
As one of the desert fathers said: “Today, I will begin.” Begin what?
I will begin my everyday duties, like the faithful housewife in the first reading. She combines assiduous work, good judgment, and generosity. She accomplishes her work to perfection. She fears the Lord. She is faithful to God’s law. She seeks her perfection in fidelity to every day duties.
Or we can do as the first two servants in the gospel, who went out and used their talent for the sake of the kingdom. They were faithful and trustworthy servants.
The point of these readings is that the woman and the servants did everything that could be expected of them in their own time and place. And it is their fidelity that we must imitate in our time and place, and not the exact way that they were faithful.
Note that the master gives the same reward to the two hard-working servants, even though their amount of profit varied. It is not the amount of the achievement that matters. It is the fact that they did the best they could with what they had.
How do we know what God expects of us? By looking at the everyday situation in which God has put us. Who are the people, what is the work, that God has committed to us? It is through answering these questions that God lets us know where our heart and effort should be primarily applied. Our first responsibility is to the people whom God has made a part of our lives and to the task that he assigns us. It is to be the best father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister, butcher, baker, sales clerk, monk, accountant, lawyer, nurse, teacher, or manager.
We must not seek perfection elsewhere than in faithfulness to everyday duties.
But that is not all… We do not do this on our own. We live and move and have our being in the context of the Liturgy.
And so, day by day, we celebrate the mysteries of salvation: the life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Day by day we enter into the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church. We say: Today I will enter more deeply into this mystery of Christ Incarnate. Today I will meet the living Lord Jesus. Today I will express in my life and manifest to others the mystery of Christ. Today I will fully, consciously, and actively participate in these saving mysteries. Today I will receive Christ, and then take him to my brothers and sisters. Today I will receive the mercy of Jesus and then show that same mercy to the least of his brothers and sisters. Today I will know and experience the love of Jesus and then love my brothers and sisters as I have first been loved by Jesus. Today I will freely give to others what I myself have freely received.
Then, when the day of the Lord comes, it will be no surprise. It will be like meeting an old friend. I will meet him whom I have been meeting daily all my life. I will know him, and he will know me. And he will say: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my joy.”