Homily for 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - November 15, 2020

 

Readings for today can be found here.

“Remain in me as I remain in you, says the Lord.  Whoever remains in me bears much fruit.”  The Alleluia verse captures the theme of nearly all our readings: bearing fruit.  Proverbs speaks of the fruits of marriage when one spouse entrusts their heart to the other.  Our Psalm tells us that those who fear the Lord are blessed and fruitful.  The Gospel is a continuation of last week’s reading.  In these verses Jesus describes of the Kingdom of heaven and emphasizes the need to be prepared.  Last week we heard the parable of the ten virgins.  Five were wise and had extra oil for their lamps whereas the other five did not.  Since the groom was delayed and arrived unexpectedly, the foolish virgins ran out of oil.  The groom arrived while they were getting more oil and they were not allowed into the celebration.

            Today’s Gospel begins in a similar fashion.  The master goes away on a journey and returns at an unexpected time.  In the meantime, the master entrusts all that he has to his servants.  He does not distribute his possessions equally.  He knows the abilities of his servants and gives them only what he knows they can handle.  This means that the master knows his servants very well.  We hear that the master has high expectations of his servants.  He has a reputation as being “demanding”.  Because of this, two of the servants utilize what they’ve been given to receive a return on their efforts.  However, the third servant buries what he’s been given.  This was a common method in ancient times to ensure the item was not lost.

            This servant knew what he’d been given was valuable.  He also knew that even with minimal effort, he might have received some return on the investment.  After all, putting money in a bank should collect interest.  As Fr. Joe mentioned in his homily last week, he could have tried “just enough to get by.”  However, as with any investment, there’s still some risk of losing money.  So, why did the servant bury what he’d been given?  He comes out and says it himself: fear.  His fear of punishment caused him to hide his talent so that it did not bear any fruit.  So, for this servant, “just getting by” meant letting his talent sit and do nothing.

            Before we judge this servant harshly, remember that fear is a powerful emotion.  There are many reasons we might be afraid to utilize our God given talents.  Perhaps we’re afraid of failing.  Or we may be afraid of what other people might think.  We may think we’re just not good enough to use our talent.  For some, this fear can be discouraging.

One of the talents God has blessed me with is musicianship.  I play the guitar and have been told I have a decent voice.  In my younger days, I played in several rock bands and performed in local clubs.  I appeared confident to my bandmates and the audience, but what no one knew was that I suffered from performance anxiety, better known as stage fright.  Some of you may be familiar with stage fright or have similar fears of being in front of others.  I would get so nervous before a show that I would feel physically ill.  I usually made it through the performance, but it was difficult for me.  After a time, I realized, as in today’s parable, that I needed to use my talents in the service of God and joined one of the groups in my parish music ministry.  A strange thing happened.  While the situation seemed the same, playing and singing in front of a large group of people, there was no anxiety or fear whatsoever.

            I’m convinced this was because God removed the fear once I began using my talent in His service instead of just my own.  And that’s the answer to the fear of the third servant.  God has entrusted all of us with His possessions.  We are Christ in the world.  We each have some talent, skill, or ability we can put in the service of others.  Some of us may feel that using these talents is out of our comfort zone.  And that very well may be.  However, God has given us these talents to use them in establishing His kingdom here on earth.  If He gave us the talent, He will also give us the strength and the graces we need to use them.  God has high expectations of us.  But as long as we remain in Jesus as He remains in us, we will bear much fruit.  What is preventing us from using our talents in the service of others?  How can we use them in serving others as Jesus did?  What are we afraid of?