Daily Office Readings for Friday of the 3rd Week of Advent: Year 2
Morning, Psalm 40 and 54; Evening, Psalm 51;
Zechariah 7:8 to 8:8; Revelation 5:6 to 14; Matthew 25:14 to 30:
“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” (Matthew 25: 14 – 15)
(Edited and republished from December 20, 2019)
This is a very familiar parable. It is about using whatever gifts we have to the best of our abilities. In this parable, the one servant who gets only one talent, decides not to use it. He buries it until the return of the master. Bad move.
I ponder about the relative effects of this parable. The man who receives the one talent witnesses the others receiving more, one gets 5, the next gets two, and finally he, the third servant, gets only one. Could he feel unappreciated?
What I want to bring to the forefront here is the responsibility we all have to do the best we can with what God has graced us with. Whatever gift (or gifts) we have, it is what our family, or community, or the world needs. God does not waste gifts. Some of us have gifts of mathematics; some of us have gifts of voice as in singing; some of us have gifts of extraordinary compassion; some of us have gifts of agricultural cultivation and some of us are blessed with more than one; maybe five or two or just one like our servant above.
I try not to focus on our neglected state due to unexplored gifts. But the saddest part for me is that we all suffer from the lack of what we could have enjoyed. God does not waste gifts. Has God gifted you with something we need or want in our lives right now? Please make use of it, we need it. Remember, what the world needs, and what you enjoy doing, is where God enters our world. We are all works in progress and we are all still being created, even after a Sabbath rest.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom.
As we listen to what the Spirit is saying to us, let us live to love, to serve, and to teach, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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