I remember many years ago before I was married. It was important to me to have pretty dishes, even for everyday use, a yard with flowers much of the year, and cloth napkins. Why? Because in my mind at 22, if I had fresh flowers, pretty dishes, and cloth napkins, I would be rich. We got married, lived in a many-year-old 9 x 36 trailer for a while, then decorated our house with early yard sale and late attic furniture—but, to me, we were rich. Most every night our table looked like we were dining on the ritz.
That memory came to mind as I studied and prayed about today’s readings. One way you can look at them is through the lens of God saying: invest your wealth in what is important. Certainly, at the center and most important is the Gospel, but the other two readings complement this theme.
Mathew 25:14-30
It is still Holy Week. Jesus continues to tell his disciples parables to help them when the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension come. Perhaps you could say that the three parables in Mathew 25 are their study guide to prepare for their coming final exam of discipleship. Last week through the story of the wise and foolish bridesmaids, Jesus said in effect: be alert, be prudent, protect the Light of Faith you have been given, then let it shine.
Today the message seems a logical next step: You have been given something of great value—the experiences of these three years with me. Don’t let fear cause you to bury it. Invest the wealth of what you have learned.
It is important to read this parable understanding what a talent was. A talent was a piece of gold. A BIG piece of gold. It is called a coin, but a talent weighed about 75 pounds. You couldn’t put it in your pocket! Don’t feel sorry for the servant who only got one talent from his master. That talent of 75 pounds of gold would be worth approximately $2,000,000 today.
The disciples had given up everything to follow Jesus. None of them were rich. How interesting that Jesus now tells them a story in which the main characters are blessed with wealth: the equivalent of 10 million or 4 million or 2 million dollars. We know the disciples did not yet understand that when Jesus came into his Kingdom, it was going to be on a cross. We know at least James and John were thinking there was going to be honor and glory when Jesus came into his Kingdom. So, master story-teller Jesus hooks them with this story of being given great wealth. The moral of the story is: INVEST IT. Let it show, use what you have. What did they have that would be useful in the Kingdom of life after his resurrection: Jesus’ teachings, the miracles they had witnessed, the understanding that would emerge of a whole new faith, all those descriptions of what the Kingdom of God’s Reign would be like. This story was to help them have the courage to live what they had come to understand.
Above all, BE NOT AFRAID! DO NOT BURY YOUR GREAT TREASURE!
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Perhaps you have not thought of a good wife as a source of wealth, but many a man who doesn’t have one would tell you otherwise. Perhaps you do not see yourself as a good wife having “a value far beyond pearls.” But what a treasure a good wife or good husband is! How wonderful it is to love and be loved at home!
Family love may be taken for granted, tried by circumstances of life, or seem unappreciated by children. But in our world today it is seriously sought by those who did not grow up in a home with it. It is remembered with sadness by those who had it as children, but do not have it as adults. Our culture does not value family like it values individual achievement or wealth.
And so Mother Church balances a story of what to do with physical wealth with a reminder that human, family love is a great, great treasure. Even if you have only some family love, you have a couple of million dollars worth. However, much you have, INVEST IN IT. Don’t be limited by fear, ordinariness, or even by family troubles.
The right to have and raise a family is one of the core principles of Catholic Social Teaching. How ironic that the wealth of a lifetime marriage to a God-loving mate is most commonly absent in the nations who have more of the wealth of commerce!
I Thessalonians 5:1-6
Paul continues to reassure the new Christian community that they are “children of light,” i.e., they are people of faith. What a great wealth faith is! When troubles come, and you are not a person of faith, it is hard indeed. Who can you count on? How can you understand what is happening? How can you have standards of love that guide you? People without faith have meaning in their lives, but it is a personal meaning, and they know it. There is a great richness in a faith as wide and deep and founded on objective truth as ours.
Application: The Common Good
The Catholic Social Teaching principle of “The Common Good” goes back at least to the monks of the Egyptian desert and the Rule of St. Benedict in 5th century Europe. It was even a government principle during the many wars of the Dark and Middle Ages. If the local prince had a castle, and his kingdom was under attack, it was understood that people in his kingdom could come stay inside the castle during the fighting. They shared water, provisions, space, and safety with his knights and his family. It was the Christian thing to do.
Today, what is understood as the Common Good has expanded. It is not just the neighbors on our street or in our parish. It is not just our ethnic community or even our nation. As Gaudium et Spes and Pope Francis tell us repeatedly: today ALL people are our brothers and sisters. Thus, we care about war in Ukraine or Israel/Palestine. We care about the effects of global warming. We care about the millions of migrants around the world. We care about……we care. We are to care enough to consider what is good for others whom we do not know as we invest our spiritual and physical resources in the life we live.
This expansion of the Common Good has stretched me in multiple ways since those days when I wanted to at least FEEL rich, when wealth enough for a good life was a definite goal.
How gradually, mostly gently, God has given me experiences decade by decade to expand my understanding of “brothers and sisters all”. Sometimes the experiences were wonderful, as are my experiences with Latinos now. Sometimes they were very painful, as when my own family was a train-wreck family like the ones I worked with.
Yet of all the goodness God has given to me, nothing is greater than the expansion of my heart. My own experiences, as I reflect on them this week, lead me to both thank God for his patient investment and renew my commitment to work with families, using a vision of faith, and invest the wealth of experience God has given me in the tasks of the day, of the week, of my life.
As I look at the great wealth of experience God has given, it also seems to be true that, if we want peace and prosperity—a world where there is wealth enough for all—it seems worthwhile to trade sunglasses of polarity or self-absorption for bifocals of the Common Good. Like the servants in Jesus parable, we would have plenty, and others could have enough if we share the wealth of material goods, good relationships, and living in the Light of faith.
Prayer:
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
