Parable of the Talents

I wrote another reflection for the St. James Christian Formation blog. Thought I'd share it with you too. It's for this upcoming weekend.
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At the center of this parable are three servants and a journeying man. Two of the servants are praised as “good and faithful” while the other servant gets labeled “wicked” and “lazy”. The man, who leaves on a journey, leaves no instructions for his servants, but simply entrusts them with everything. At the end of the parable we find out that he is demanding, maybe even a little unfair. He wants results from places where he gives no expectations. He “harvests where he doesn’t plant and gathers where he doesn’t scatter”. It’s unreasonable to expect these things, and maybe the man’s unreasonableness is the reason why he gets angry when the third servant fails to double his allotment.

Why in the world is Jesus telling us this story of a man with unreasonable expectations? Because God is unreasonable. It seems unreasonable for God to send us His Son here to earth and even more unreasonable that Jesus would die for us. It seems unreasonable for there to be a Church that exists for two thousand years despite corruption and abundance of sin. It seems unreasonable for a parent to wake up at three in the morning to care for a crying baby.

Love is unreasonable.

Jesus coming into the world seems unreasonable, but Jesus is the ultimate example of love. A two thousand year old Church seems unreasonable, but despite the corruption and sin, the Church has been an instrument of love in the world. Anyone waking up at three in the morning seems unreasonable, but a parent’s love for the child trumps sleep sometimes.

God is the unreasonable person who entrusts us with everything. We have the earth, we have our family, we have our friends, and we have our lives. Of course, God does give us some instruction unlike the journeying man. But these gifts from God are all freely given to us out of God’s love for us. It is up to us to multiply this love by our thoughts, words, and actions. Doing so could result in being called a “good and faithful servant” of God. (Perhaps coincidently, the title “Servant of God” is the first title give to a person on their way to sainthood).

When we fail to multiply that love, when we cut ourselves off from other people, we risk being called “wicked” and “lazy”. At the heart of this failure to love is likely fear, for “there is no fear in love” (1 John 4:18). The third servant, out of fear, buried the talent. And us? Out of fear, what do we do? How does fear hinder our love for our family? For our friends? For our other brothers or sisters in Christ?