Homily for the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Paradox Of The Law Of The Gift

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, November 19, 2023

From the lips of Jesus we hear the Parable of the Talents. Jesus tells of a man who is going on a journey. But before leaving, he entrusts his money to three of his servants. To one he gives five talents, to the second two, and to the third, one. He gives to each one according to their ability. After distributing his money to his servants, the man went away. It is worth noting that in the ancient world, a talent was a large amount of money. That the third servant received just one talent does not mean he received a trivial and insignificant amount. While the man was away, the first servant immediately risked the five talents in the open market by trading with it. The second servant does the same. Many of you know the danger of investing your money in the stock market. It is always a risk to do it, but if you don’t, your money won’t grow in value. It is similar to what the first two servants did. In the end, both of them received a rich return on their investments. They doubled their money. As for the third man, out of caution, he buries his talent with the hope of returning it to his master. When the master finally returns, he commends the first and the second servants, and gives them greater responsibilities. For the third man, he rebukes and calls him wicked and lazy.

What is the meaning and purpose of this parable? In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus uses the dynamics of investments, risks and profits as a model for spiritual life. The reason for this is very clear. God exists in gift form. God is the Cheerful Giver. Therefore if you want God’s life in you, you must conform to his own way of being. You must learn how to give if you want to have God. Consider the Parable of the Talents as everything we receive from God— life, breath, being, powers of the mind and will etc. Because they come from God, they are meant to become gifts. If you cling to them just like the third servant, they don’t grow, rather, they wither away. Everything in us came from God and are therefore meant to be in gift form. If you cling to them and use them for your private egotistic needs, they will fade away. The first two servants received more. Why? Because they risked what they have been given. They were willing to give it away, and thereby doubled their wealth. This is the reason why the paradoxical principle we hear at the end of the parable makes a whole lot of sense: “To everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich.” If you look at this paradox purely from a worldly and secularistic view, it makes no sense at all. From a worldly standpoint, it is not fair! It is the one who has little or nothing that more should be given, and not the one who already has. Right? But what it means is that the one who truly has the divine life, and knows how to make it a gift, in the end, the original wealth will increase. If you have the divine life, you know it is a gift, and you give it away, that divine life which you have will eventually increase, not diminish. This is the paradox of the law of the gift. 

More to it, Jesus also says, “From the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Again, in our worldly calculation, this is quite unfair. Isn’t it? If someone does not have a lot, the little he has will be taken away. Again, this is a paradox. But what does it mean? If you try to cling to the divine life, you will in a short distant time, lose it. The divine life cannot be clung to because the divine life exists in a gift form. Once you receive it, you give it away and as you give it away, it does not decrease, rather, it increases. But if you cling to it, you will lose it. The problem is that we sinners sometimes get into a bad rhythm. We try to fill ourselves up when in spiritual reality, we should be emptying ourselves out. As sinners, we are a consumerist people, but saints are giving people. Rather than live and move according to the philosophy of “go-getters,” let’s live according to the principle of “go-givers.” This is the general principle that guides the spiritual life. 

With this in mind, let us now apply it to a particular case, to evangelization. That is, the sharing of the faith. Life will grow in the measure that you give it away. Your being will increase in the measure that you give it away. So, your faith will increase in the measure that you share it. In our society today, a lot of people struggle with unbelief or weakened faith. As secularism increases, so also is the attack on our faith from different angles. Attack on religion and on God is today widespread. The fear of God has so disappeared today that people say the most disrespectful thing to God and about God. The spreading of lies, relativism and subjectivism attack our faith too. They make us doubt God’s love, God’s providential care, and God’s involvement in our everyday ordinary life. The propagation of “your view is your truth,” “my view is my truth,” “their view is their truth” and “our view is our God” poses the starkest danger to our faith, they weaken our faith in the reality of God, who creates and sustains the cosmos. If anyone has gone through the loss of a loved one through sickness, or has experienced financial reversal or some sort of a tragedy, it is very tempting to say, “There is no God,” or “God doesn’t care.” In the face of these difficulties and attacks, do not forget the law of the gift. Your faith will get stronger, it will increase in the measure that you give it away. Is this counterintuitive? You betcha! When you don’t have enough, when you lose something of great importance to you, the tendency is to say, “This is not the right time to share my things because I am really short, I have to conserve, to save and to cling to the little I have.” That’s the natural tendency! But in the spiritual order, the right attitude is to do the opposite. It is in the act of sharing that your faith increases and becomes stronger. When it appears that God has disappointed you, do not wait around for your faith in God in return. Start sharing your faith nevertheless, and as you do that, your faith will increase and become more intensified. In the economic context of the parable of the talent, money won’t grow unless it is risked. The conservative strategy is in fact self defeating. Your faith has to be risked, that is, putting it out there. 

What’s the popular attitude today? Privatization of the faith! Make your faith a private matter. Keep it to yourself. Don’t talk about it in the public forum. I tell you, that’s a short road to losing your faith. To some degree, you have to put your faith in danger. You have to put it out there for the haters of faith to mock it, to ridicule it, to question it or to be indifferent to it. Is the sharing of faith easy? Not at all! People would prefer to talk about sports and other things they agree on. From the time of Jesus to the present day, the more you make your faith public, the more you put it at risk. Some people who like you and associate with you, may no longer be comfortable with you. They might call you “weird” and consider your good counsel “religious jibber jabber. The propagation of the faith is always a dangerous venture. Look at Jesus! Look at the Apostles! Look at the saints! The great Pope John Paul II almost lost his life to gunshot because of his fearless preaching in defense of Christ, Christianity, life and against the horrors of communism. Should that make us withdraw from the preaching of the gospel? Not at all! The Christian faith will not grow unless we give it away, that is, unless we share it. So, I ask you to find some concrete ways to share your faith. You can begin it from your home. Find the time, call it “God’s time” to share your faith with your household. Sharing your faith is like risking your money. But Jesus assures that it will pay off eventually. If your faith is of great importance to you, share it with others and it will definitely grow. 

Veni Sancte Spiritus!