Happy 33rd Sunday of Ordinary time! We have only one Sunday yet left before we begin a new cycle beginning with Advent. As we end the liturgical cycle the theme goes that way as well to the “Last Things” of death, judgment, heaven, and hell. This Sunday we get the parable of the talents. Next Sunday, Jesus speaks on judgment, the separating of sheep and goats, and says “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
One person who definitely took this seriously was St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She said, “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.’” It is said that Mother Teresa had a way of remembering this by using her 5 fingers on one hand and reciting, “You…did…it…to…me” meaning Jesus. She did everything for love of Jesus.
It is perhaps terrifying to think of our judgment by the Lord at the end of life. In terms of this Sunday’s gospel, we have to give an accounting of what we have done with the “talents” God has given us. The word “talent” doesn’t originally mean what we think it means. We think it means our special gifts and abilities, but the Greek word “talenton” originally meant a unit of weight or money. But it was so obvious that God gives us so many gifts and abilities, that the word has come to mean all of that now. We surely get our current word and concept of “talent” from this parable of the Bible.
Rather than be stuck in terror of the judgment, let us simply take it day by day, giving thanks for all the gifts of God, and then trying to use them as best we can that day. As we heard a few Sundays ago, the greatest commandments are to love God and to love neighbor. Each day we must live with love. The greatest “talent” given us is God’s love. We are called to turn around and spend that love in all we do. Invest it. And it will come back to us multiplied. And then we need not be afraid of the accounting and judgment. As St. John the Cross once said, “In the evening of life, we will be judged on our love.”