Homily

The parable of the talents begins with a man who is about to depart. He calls together his three servants and gives each of them his goods. His faith in them is absolute and so he gives each of them a large sum of talents. A talent had enormous value, corresponding to about fifty kilos of gold, a real huge amount. The substantial amount helps us to understand the importance of the task given by the master to the three servants. To the first he entrusts five talents, a true treasure. To the second servant he entrusts two talents and to the third, one talent. The consignment, as one can see, is personal and respects each one’s skills. We are not witness to senseless, mechanical distribution: the master knows and respects the capacities of each one. Between his departure and return, the master expects the three servants to return a profit with what they had been given. It is clear that they are not masters of the money, but administrators. In fact, upon his return the master will ask how they managed what they had been given. Once the master left, the first servant starts working with the talent and doubles the capital (v. 16). It is worth noting that the evangelist writes that “immediately” the first servant goes to work, as if to indicate the importance of his task and therefore the responsibility he feels for his master’s interests. The second servant does the same (v. 17). The third, however, makes a hole in the earth and hides the talent. It should also be noted that burying the talent is not as strange as it may seem; it corresponds with a dictate of rabbinic jurisprudence according to which whoever, after consignment, buries a token or deposit is free of responsibility.
Upon the master’s return, the first servant presents himself and receives praise and recompense. The second servant also presents the double of what he was given and obtains his reward. The third approaches and gives back to the master only the original talent that he had received. And he even states the reason for his action: he was afraid of the harsh master and therefore wanted to protect himself according to the strictest juridical practice. The talents are life, not an abstract life, but real one, the life we live everyday, made up of our relationship with others and with the world. All of this falls under our responsibility so that each one of us may bear fruit with it. And to each of us is given what we can do according to our abilities. This means that there is not an equal measure of life for all, but also that no one is incapable of increasing the life that they have. No one can use excuses (of mentality, character, illness or weakness…) to draw away from the responsibility of employing one’s life for multiplying the yield. If anything, we frequently turn a profit only for ourselves, working to advance only our own interests such as our own sense of security, tranquillity and nothing more. This is what the third servant does: he buries his talent in order to have “peace and security,” as the Apostle writes in the Letter to the Thessalonians.
The third servant had the law on his side; the law freed him from every responsibility and above all from risks associated with responsibility. The parable warns us that this servant preferred to hide his life in a hole, in an avaricious and egoistic tranquillity. Perhaps this is where the fear lies. Fear not so much of the master as of losing his own avaricious tranquillity. On the one hand, with this parable, Jesus unveils the ambiguity of one who contents himself with how things are, has no desire to change, no aspiration to transform life and, no ambition for a happier life for all. On the other hand, he reveals that the kingdom of heaven begins with each of us, big and small, strong and weak. It begins when we do not allow avarice and self-interest to close us off from others, but open ourselves to life and take on the task of changing our hearts to desire work that alleviates suffering and brings our world closer to the Gospel. This is how our life will be multiplied: our weakness will be rendered into strength, our poverty will be transformed into wealth, and our joy will be full: “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”