HOMILY FOR THE THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR IN THE ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A

Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31 – A perfect wife – who can find her?

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 127(128):1-5 – O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Second Reading:1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 – God will bring with him those who have died in Jesus.

Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30 – You have been faithful in small things: come and join in your master’s happiness.

Businesses measure success and failure by the amount of profit one makes in the end. When one toils night and day and, in the end, makes profits, the person is regarded as a successful business man. If, however, the person makes all effort and fails to make profits, that person is regarded as a failure. Business people are, understandably, obsessed with the fruits of their labour. However, one must be careful not to transpose or apply business model to spirituality and religious affairs. In religious affairs, a completely different model is in operation: what matters is not necessarily the fruit of one’s labour but the effort to produce fruits. In the end, one might not have produced much fruits; but one’s effort would have produced him great rewards. The task of producing fruits lies outside human capability. Humans can only as much as make efforts – like planting and watering – but it is God who makes the seed to grow and produce fruits. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6-8: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God causes growth. Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive wages in proportion to his labour”.

It should, therefore, not surprise us that, in the Gospel narrative, the person who produced two extra talents got the same reward as the one who produced five extra talents. In business setting, this would have been unthinkable. Nonetheless, because we are dealing here with religious and spiritual matters, what counted was not the number of talents they produced but the effort they put up in order to produce talents. The great misfortune is to fold one’s hands, not making any effort on the assumption that one has little talents or none at all. A story is told of a deformed man who complained that he had not been able to achieve anything because he is cheated by nature. The Master replied him: “Look carefully; with every moment of your passing life, you are over blessed”.

The reason why we are unhappy is not because we are cheated. Nobody cheated us. It is rather we who cheat ourselves. The man who was given one talent was not cheated. Remember, each received according to his ability. He couldn’t have received more than he was given, otherwise, it would have been beyond his ability to manage. There is this story of a mad man who became “famous” in one Nigerian village. His “fame” grew, not out of the fact that he was mad, but the manner with which he exhibited his brand of madness. He was in the habit of begging for coins with which to buy snacks (for a better understanding from this audience, we shall substitute the local currency with the Euro currency). His favourite snack cost 1€. Whenever he felt like eating the snack, he begged for 1€ coin, nothing more, nothing less. One day, as usual, he begged for 1€ coin from a passer-by who gave him 10€ note instead. He examined the “strange” paper carefully and inquired from the person what he gave him. When the person told him that it was 10€ note, he angrily threw the note back at him and said he requested for 1€ coin and not for 10€ note. See what I mean? If you think that was funny, recently there was a documentary about an Irish man who won more than 20 million euro in lottery only to end up in the streets as a homeless beggar less than six years after the jackpot win. How do you explain the two cases other than that they received beyond their capabilities to manage?

Our friend with one talent in today’s Gospel buried the talent instead of using it. How like many of us. When you bury your talent, who do you cheat – God, others, or yourself? When one allows his/her bank account to become dormant, it is not the bank that loses but the person. In the same vain, we have allowed most of our talents to become dormant; and we are the losers for that. When God gives us talents (whatever they may be) they are meant to be used and multiplied, not to be buried.

The first reading talks about the “good wife” or the “perfect wife”. The qualities listed can also be understood in the light of “talents”. A woman who has those qualities is regarded as a perfect wife. Note carefully that one “quality” is specifically excluded from the qualities expected of a good wife namely, beauty: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty empty; the woman who is wise is the one to praise”. This goes to show that the “beauty” of a woman does not lie in her beauty but in her wisdom, in her industriousness, and in her generosity. By extension, the “handsomeness” of a man does not lie in his handsomeness and in the wealth of his pocket but rather in his wisdom, industriousness, and generosity. In his pamphlet, Lessons for Life, Fr. Taddeo Onoyima said: “Of all known remedies for a happy home, a good wife is a wonderful one. The only parallel is a good husband”. When, therefore, we read about “a perfect wife”, we should also think of “a perfect husband”.

We men are often in the habit of reading the Bible from misogynistic standpoint and misleadingly think that demand for perfection and decency is only directed towards women. Everybody, irrespective of gender, is called to holiness, perfection, and decency. Husbands cannot demand for perfect wives unless they are perfect husbands. We must have to begin the effort towards perfection from our very selves. One cannot demand perfection from others when the person himself does not make effort to be perfect. As we journey through life, our continuous effort to attain perfection is what is going to set us on the path to salvation.