Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

November 14, 2020

 

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.14.20_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The text that guided the homily was: 

* Every November, the Church has us focus our attention on the four last things — death, judgment, heaven and hell — so that we might be always prepared for the first two, enter into the third and avoid the fourth. This Sunday is no exception. In the second reading, St. Paul tells us, as he told the Christians in Thessalonika, that “the day of the Lord” — the day of our death or the end of the world, whichever comes first  — “will come like a thief in the night … as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.” An expectant mother never knows for sure when contractions will start. Many women —like the worthy wives praised by the Book of Proverbs in today’s first reading — prepare a bag of necessary items for the hospital in mid-pregnancy in case the contractions come prematurely so that they’re ready to go to the hospital on a minute’s notice. St. Paul says we need to prepare in the same way for the contractions of death that lead us from the womb to the next dimension of life on this earth. Death can come when we least expect it. It could come for some or all of us as fast as today. This reality scares some people, because they know that won’t be ready, much like students who don’t study regularly fear flunking a pop quiz. But St. Paul calls the Thessalonians and us not to be afraid by telling us what we need to do. “You, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness for that day to overtake you like a thief.” We know it’s coming. Therefore he reminds and exhorts us, “You are all children of light and children of the day… So let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.” He tells us always to have what we need ready, so that we might go with joy to the Father’s house. The question for us is: What do we need to do to be ready, what do we have to have in our “go bag” so as not to be caught off-guard when the labor pains for eternal life begin?

* In the Gospel, Jesus answers that question and tells us what we need to have in that travel sack. He gives us a parable about how we are to be judged and how we are to prepare for it. But in doing so, as he often does, Jesus tells us as well so much about who we are in God’s eyes, where we fit into His plans, and how we should live. The entire history of the world and the vocation of each of us is found in this short story.

* It’s called the Parable of the Talents. A rich man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them, each according to his ability: to one he gave five talents, another two, and the third one. On the Master’s return, the one who had received five gave him ten back; the one who received two likewise doubled it and gave him four back; but the one who had received one buried the talent and just gave him back the one at the end.

* In our egalitarian culture, we can get lost in the numbers and think that they’re more important than they are. Jesus gives to “each according to his ability” and he’ll judge us not according to quantity but according to what we’ve done with that ability in relation to what’s been given. Some of us can get a lost by the number “one” as if someone would not have been able to do much with so little, or as if the “one” were just one coin that we might easily lose if we tried to invest it. We have to remember, however, that by the word “talent” Jesus was referring to a measurement of weight. One talent of silver was equal to 6,000 days wages or about 20 years of work for someone working six days...