16/11/2008 - 33rd. Sunday Ordinary
Time - Year A
1st. Reading Prov 31,10-13.19-20.30-31 Psalm 127 2nd. Reading 1Ts 5,1-6 Gospel
Mt 25,14-30
"I believe the Church, Holy": Given the fact that the Church is holy,
all that she does is stamped with holiness. In particular certain actions of
the Church, when they are done in obedience to the Lord Jesus, are holy and
sanctify. I am thinking of the Sacraments, by which the Church expresses and
communicate the Father's faithful love. Baptism immerges the person in the life
of God, in love in its perfection. Confirmation consecrates him and sanctifies
him making him a witness in the newness of life. The Eucharist nurtures the
faithful with the love by which Jesus offered himself to the Father up to the
death on a cross, and Confession gives back to him, after sin, the communion
with God and the brethren in the community. The Anointing of the sick sanctifies
the person in the sickness of the body and ties him with the sufferings of Jesus
Christ offered on the cross for the salvation of humanity and the world. The
sacrament of Holy Orders gives man the divine authority so that the Church continues
to carry out what God does for his children. And the sacrament of Holy Matrimony
sanctifies the human love of a couple making it an effective sign of divine
love, in a way that the family is holy and a place of holiness. The holiness
of the Church is reflected in the holiness of the family, which becomes the
special place of God's action: here the children are prepared to come to know
the fatherhood of God and to live in communion with the obedient Son; the couple,
by their faithful love, witness to all the faithful love of Jesus, who is ready
to faithfully carry the cross. The holiness of the Church is offered to all
her children in different ways and means that makes out of the Church like a
colorful bouquet. The highest moment in which the holiness of the Church is
manifested is when she is persecuted and suffers violence, when the world tries
to stop her from being faithful to Jesus and exercise the love that the Christians
want to offer to all. In these moments we are to say with and pride: I believe
the Church, holy!
It is our desire to know…how we are to end our life! Today, the Word wants to
speak to us about this to help us to use right the time that passes and the
one that can still freely work out. God does not say how it is going to end
for us, but shows us the two possible ways and the dawn of both. Then we would
choose. In this world we are present with all that God has given us: time, material
things, physical and intellectual gifts, spiritual capacity etc. We are in the
world only to receive, but also to give, to offer to other the gift of our lives.
Jesus explains it to us by a long parable. A rich man leaves for a long trip
from which he will come back. He trusts his belongings to his servants, to everyone
according to his own capacity. What will those servants do in his absence? It
is not difficult to understand that he is speaking of himself. He is the man
who is preparing to leave this world and then returns back in his glory. Upon
departure, he gives his goods to his servants. What will they do in his absence?
First and foremost we need to ask what are these great gifts that the Lord Jesus
gives to his servants that are to his disciples. He does not have money or any
other possessions to give. The goods, or gifts, that Jesus gives to his own
are a great love for all men, a profound and on going faith in the Father, a
capacity of prayer and adoration that change one's life, and, in particular,
the same Word of God and his Holy Spirit! What will his disciples do during
the time in which their Lord is not with them physically?
Jesus tries to help them, so that after he leaves they won't forget him, but
remain focused on his person even when they will not see him. There will be
the disciple that will live in view of the Lord's return who commits all his
time and his strength for him. This one will see that the faith, prayer, the
capacity to love and the Word and the Spirit received, bears fruit that gives
joy and glory to Jesus! Unfortunately there will be also the one who will forget
about him, who will hide both the faith, prayer, and even the Spirit and the
Word! This one lives fulfilling his selfishness, will live for self. It is obvious
that when the Lord will come in his glory, there be a difference between ones
and the others, because this difference already exists: around the faithful
disciple prayer, faith, and love grow, and a life in communion changes society;
around the selfish disciple, on the other hand, one finds emptiness, poverty,
and indifference. Reading the parable many would thing that the talents of which
Jesus is speaking are the material goods, or intelligence, the power of the
will, the capacity of working what goes through our hands. It is not mistaken:
even these gifts are to give glory to him, to be and to become signs of his
great love for every man, for the little ones and the poor, for the weak and
the rejected. The First Reading helps us to read the parable also in this way:
the strong and admirable woman and beautiful is that one who is always committed
to her work, that does not serve only her own family, but reaches out to the
poor and the needy. On the other hand, it is mistaken to think of working the
talents to become overwhelmingly rich! The one who does not consider the poor
does not do the will of God! In the depth of the heart and the beginning of
the thoughts of the faithful person or the disciple of Jesus, there is to be
the resolution to serve the loving will of the Lord!