Multiplying Our Talents for God

Homily for Sunday, November 19, 2023
The Twenty Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Matthew 25:14-30

“For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 

This passage is troubling.  It doesn’t feel very“Christian,” somehow, to give more to those who already have and to take away from those who have nothing.  What could Jesus possibly mean when he says that “to all those who have, more will be given… but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away”?  

I want to get back to this passage, but first, the catechumenate, the formation process whereby candidates are prepared for Baptism…  Traditionally in the catechumenate candidates are expected to memorize, and then to recite before the entire congregation, the Apostles Creed.  However, in the early Church before the Creeds were developed, scholars believe that candidates for Baptism were expected to memorize not the Creed but the Sermon on the Mount – all of it!  And never mind reciting it before the entire congregation (which they may well have had to do), candidates were expected to live the Sermon on the Mount.  The community knew a candidate was ready for Baptism, not when they had memorized the Sermon on the Mount, but when they lived the Sermon on the Mount.  

And so (for example), the community knew a candidate was ready for Baptism…

·       When they did not resist an evildoer, but if anyone struck them on the right cheek, they turned the other also (Matt 5:39).

·       Or when, if anyone wanted to sue them and take their coat, they gave their cloak as well(5:40)

·       Or when, if someone forced them to go one mile, they went also the second (5:41).

·       Or when they gave to everyone who begged from them, and did not refuse anyone who wanted to borrow from them (5:42).

·       When they loved their enemies and prayed for those who persecuted them (5:44)

Once a candidate had not only memorized the Sermon on the Mount but lived it, the community knew they were ready for Baptism.  

Which brings us to today’s Gospel lesson, the so-called Parable of the Talents.  A conventional understanding of this passage suggests that we, like the slaves in the parable, have been given certain “talents,” like teaching or organizing or cooking or fundraising.  These talents, we say, are God-given, and God gave them to us to work for the spread of the Gospel or to build up the Church. But this conventional understanding of the passage troubles me.  To understand the talents as “talents” can easily stray into contemporary Western understandings of work and productivity, it carries echoes of hubris that God can’t do God’s own work, and it could encourage unhealthy comparisons of those whom we perceive to be more or less “talented” than we.  

What if, instead of the talents of money being our “talents,” [what if] (to take a page from the early Church) the talents were instead connected to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?  What if the talents had to do with catechesis and formation and were connected to Christian habits and behavior?  What if the talents had to do with the degree to which we live the Sermon on the Mount?

If the talents were connected to the degree to which we live the Sermon on the Mount, it would make sense that “to all those who have, more will be given… but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away,” because the more we live into our Christian calling, the more do we experience God’s grace that helps us to live into it even more.  Augustine puts it this way:

God will go on to supply what is yet wanting when once I have begun to use what God has already given.  For a possession that is not diminished by being shared with others, if it is possessed and not shared, is not yet possessed as it ought to be. The Lord says, “To those who have, more will be given” (Matt 13:12).  The Lord will give, then, to those who have; that is to say, if they use freely and cheerfully what they have received, God will add to and perfect God’s gifts.  (On Christian Doctrine, Book I, ch. 1)

The more we live into our Christian calling, the more grace (gifts) does God give us to live into our calling even more.  

And so the slave with ten talents, for example, has been living fully the Sermon on the Mount.  He is formed in the Christian life such that(for example) he indeed can turn the other cheek and go the extra mile.  For him, grace piles upon grace; God is adding to God’s gifts in him.  And maybe the slave with five talents, though on his way to a more full catechesis (or formation), if asked to go one mile, instead of going two might go just the one,and maybe instead of giving to everyone who begs from him, he gives only to every other one.  Though this slave is making progress and is experiencing more of “the joy of [his] master,” yet his graces do not yet multiply as quickly as his fellow slave’s.   The slave with only one talent has yet to realize that even one talent is an abundance, and that with but a little effort he can experience double God’s gifts.  But – not unlike the seed that fell on rocky ground and failed to take root (Matt 13:5) – this slave does not recognize the magnitude of God’s gift, and he does not heed and follow.  His faith withers and, falling further away, he becomes one who “has nothing, and even what [he] has [is] taken away.”  

Maybe Matthew in the Parable of the Talents is trying to convey that when it comes to following Jesus’ teachings (such as in the Sermon on the Mount), the more we live them, the more we experience God’s grace that helps us to live them even more.  And those living Jesus’ teachings the least are the least open to experiencing God’s grace, such that, “To all those who have, more will be given… but from those who have nothing, even what they have will betaken away.”

The most difficult step in this journey of living Jesus’ teachings, then, seems to be the first.  If you feel you are not a five- or ten-talent slave but rather a one-talent slave, do not be discouraged.  Keep listening and looking for evidence of Jesus’ invitation – he is inviting you – and when you hear or see his invitation, follow.  For as we persevere in walking the walk of Jesus’ teachings, and as we trust in him and ask for help, Jesus will draw us closer and closer, until… following closely his teachings,the more and more God will multiply our “talents” until we, too, experience God’s gifts poured out lavishly, in abundance, on us.  

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