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

What Have You Done With Everything God Has Given You?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara

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

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, November 15, 2026

In 1985, Father Steven Scheier, a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, was returning to his parish when he was involved in a serious car accident and nearly died. He suffered a severe concussion and fractured vertebrae in his neck. He recounts finding himself judged by Jesus. According to him, “I was before the Throne of Judgment! Jesus Christ was the Judge. I didn’t see Him; I merely heard Him. What took place was instantaneous as far as “our time” is concerned. He went through my entire life and accused me of sins of commission and omission that were unconfessed and therefore unforgiven and unrepented. . . . To each offense, I said, “Yes, Lord!” I had planned excuses to say to the Lord . . . . Well, when you are talking to Truth personified, you don’t have any excuses; so all you say is “Yes, Lord!” After that, the Lord delivered his judgment: “Your sentence is Hell!” Father Scheier said he was not surprised by the judgment he received because he knew Jesus was merely honoring the choice he had made through the way he lived his life. However, something unexpected happened. He said, “It was then, after [Jesus] had said this, that I heard a woman’s voice: ‘Son, would You spare his life and his immortal soul?” The Lord said, “Mother, he has been a priest twelve years for himself, and not for Me; let him reap the punishment he deserves!” She replied, ‘But Son, what if we give to him special graces and strengths and then see if he bears fruit? If not, Your will be done!” There was a very short pause, and then I heard Him say, “Mother, he’s yours!”

As you might expect, Father Scheier gratefully embraced this great, entirely undeserved opportunity by completely changing his priorities and way of life. He began taking his religious responsibilities much more seriously and spent the rest of his life speaking at conferences and sharing his experience until his death in 2020. Of course, we should not assume that every sinner deserving of Hell will receive a similar second chance; Father Scheier was granted an extraordinary grace—something no one can truly merit or count on. His description of judgment, however, points to a reality each of us will one day face: standing before Our Lord and answering for every moral act of our lives, with no possibility of denial, blame-shifting, or excuses. Now is the time to prepare for this all-important event. If we truly live our faith each day, loving God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves, this decisive moment of divine judgment will be a blessing and an experience of mercy and grace.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus draws on the world of business and finance to explain the spiritual life. In recent years, archaeologists have told us that a Roman town called Sepphoris stood not far from Nazareth and was being built during Jesus’s lifetime, beginning when he was a child. The Gospels refer to Joseph, Jesus’s foster father, as a “tekton.” Today, we interpret that to mean a carpenter, but a “tekton” was more than a carpenter. He was like a contractor, builder, artisan, or craftsman—someone who performed a range of practical tasks. It seems reasonable to speculate that as Sepphoris was being built, there would have been a need for a “tekton.” Since the town was not far from where Jesus lived, Joseph might have taken Jesus with him as he negotiated contracts and did his work. So it is not unreasonable to say that Jesus knew the world of business, work, and contracts. That is why he often draws on that world when speaking about the spiritual life. 

So, in today's famous parable, we find this context. A man goes on a journey, but before leaving, he entrusts his money to three servants. He gives the first servant five talents, the second two, and the third one. As soon as he departs, the first servant trades with the five talents. The second does the same, and both earn a rich return on their investment. The third servant, however, cautiously buries his talent. When the owner returns, he praises the first two servants and gives them greater responsibilities, but reprimands the third. This is a market economy and capitalism on full display. 

In a market economy, growing your business means investing and taking risks. That’s the principle! If you want the money in your bank to grow, you need to put it in a savings account or invest in a CD (certificate of deposit). A checking account alone won’t earn you anything. Whenever we want our money to grow, we have to take some risk. Some people invest in a 401(k) or stocks. I’ve met people who retired early because they took risks and invested during their working years, and they were fortunate that their investments paid off. If you simply hold on to your money, it won’t grow; over time, you'll lose out—or at least its value will decline. This is a basic principle of a market economy. In today's Gospel passage, Jesus beautifully explains that the same principle applies in the spiritual order: if you want God's grace to grow in you, you must give it away. Invest it. Risk it. You are given to give. 

Today’s Gospel is about talents. What was a talent in the Bible? It was a large bar of gold or silver—heavy and weighty. The Hebrew word for weightiness is “kabod,” used to describe God's weighty, glorious presence in the Temple. Yahweh’s “kabod” dwells especially on the mercy seat, atop the Ark of the Covenant. The mercy seat is where God’s weighty presence is known. The talents given to the three servants represent God's mercy, which they received in great abundance. Everything we have and are—life, breath, existence, capacities, powers, our bodies, and more—comes from God's abundant grace and mercy. Did we use these gifts for God’s glory or our own? Did we spend them on others or for egotistic purposes? 

The great American theologian Peter Kreeft said, “When we die and meet God, he will ask us three important questions. First: Who is your God? In whom do you place your trust? Is God truly the center of your life? Second: Who are you? What kind of person have you become? Are you loving or hateful? Humble or proud? A repentant sinner or an unrepentant one? Third: What have you done? What have you done with the gifts, opportunities, time, resources, grace, and mercy God entrusted to you? What have you done for others? What have you done for God? Notice that these three questions touch on our faith, our character, and our works. And when God asks, “What have you done?” he is not simply asking how much money you have accumulated, how many degrees you have earned, how successful you have become, or how influential you have been in society. He is asking whether you have used what he gave you to make a difference in others’ lives. Remember the words of that beautiful song inspired by Matthew 25: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.”

God bless you!