About talents

In his parables and comparisons, Jesus Christ often emphasized the necessity of human cooperation with God’s call. It is eg. in the parable of the sower (Mt 13: 24-30); o anyone among wheat (Mt 13: 24-30); on the fishing net (Mt 13, 47-50) and others He said that man had an obligation to open himself to the grain of God and, if possible, to enhance the field of his soul in order to yield a good crop (Mt 13: 19-23). Man has received this task from God and it does not matter the result, but the goodwill to achieve this goal. This is what Jesus wanted to tell us in the parable of talents. So with the kingdom of heaven it is “as if a man was about to go. He called the servants and entrusted them with their possessions: one gave five talents, the other two and the other one, each according to his ability and traveled …” (Mt 25) 14-15).

And how did it turn out? The Lord of those servants returned after a long time and began to charge them. He who received five talents won five more. Even the other one who got two won two more. But the third buried his talent and returned it when he arrived. The Lord praised the first and second servants for their hard work. He called this third lazy and was not worthy to participate in the joy of his master. The parable of talents gives us a wide field to reflect on God’s generosity and trust in people. God gave people reason and free will. They can freely decide how to handle the gifts they have entrusted. It is not a result, but a good will to achieve this goal. This is for us happiness and hope – but also a threat: a threat if we do not show goodwill; hope, for it is possible for every person to show good will to God’s order as he knows it in his own conscience, whatever the assumptions and circumstances of our lives. In this way he instigates human initiative according to a well-known proverb: Do man and God will help you.

Mother of st. Clement of Ancyra often reminded her son when she was young: “My son, what is at stake here is eternal life!” In this sense, we should also understand Christ’s entrusted of gifts, talents, in order to manage them according to our abilities and gain the best reward at the heavenly Lord. He will ask us once, how we used these gifts for ourselves, but especially for our fellows. It is actually eternal life, life without end, life with God, and we would be really wicked if we did not to achieve it.

Sv. Gvantenius († 1160), a Scottish monk, often reminded himself, “What benefit will it bring me for eternal life?” Let this be the measure of all our deeds.

Poet Francis Thompson writes that the Church is not a “machine”, which is to “stick addresses, wrap people’s gods, and cultivate them to the courts and the courts …” Every person has to make his own response. You need to. Every saint is proof to us that if you or I are not holy, just because we did not want ourselves. Achieving this goal is not enough: not to steal, not to murder, to go to the temple, to baptize your children, to contribute to the repair of the temple … It is also necessary to cooperate with God’s grace and strive for perfection (Mt 5: 48). For this reason, the Divine Savior prompts us to diligently manage God’s gifts that we received from our parents by birth and from Christ by rebirth. The joy of eternal life opens before us; Whether we achieve it depends on us. Faithfulness in a small way will give us the “immense weight of eternal glory” (2 Cor 4:17), prepared from the creation of the world, if we have not disappointed in managing the entrusted gifts.