Today's Mass readings can be found here. The Gospel reading from Matthew is the parable of the talents in which a master going on a trip entrusts three servants with three different amounts of money. The servants who were given five talents and two talents both took what was given to them and doubled it. Their reward was to be invited to share their master's joy. One of my big rants this political season has been that those of us who have so much should be grateful, and in gratitude we should want others to be blessed as well. Hopefully, we'd then figure out that God blessed us in these ways so that others could be blessed through us. Instead we hoard what we're given and look down our noses at those who don't have health care, citizenship, homes, adequate education, employment, grocery money, etc. Worse yet, we find a way to tell ourselves that it's all their fault they don't have these things, that we worked hard and deserve what we have and we're not going to let someone take it from us - "Wah, it's not fair!" The gifts we are given aren't to be grasped at and clung to, they are meant to be shared. Why? Because the good God does is a sign that points to the Good God is. The love of God is profuse; it should overflow every vessel it's poured into so that the good God does in us becomes the Good God does through us. The reward for this is the act itself - we are privileged to share in the life and work of God.

Now let's talk about the third servant. He took the talent he was given and out of fear he buried it. When his master returns, the servant brings the coin back and is severly punished for not using what he had been given. His talent is taken from him and given to the servant who made good use what he had been entrusted with. What's saddest to me about this parable is that the last servant says to his master "I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground." He losses the opportunity to fully participate in the life and love of God because he was afraid. But the only people who are afraid of God are the ones who don't know who He really is. They see what He does, but they're confused about the why and the how and the role their supposed to play in all this. So they keep their heads down and just try their best not to screw up.

What if the servants who understood the plan had gone to their brother and offered to help him? What if they had said something like, "There's no need to be afraid. Our Master is demanding, it's true, but it's because He knows what you're capable of doing and who you are capable of being, and He loves you too much to let you settle for anything less. In serving our Master, you'll become that person He knows you can be, and you'll be a part of helping all of creation become what it was meant to be as well. And you don't have to do it alone - we're in this with you, and He's in this with all of us."

And then maybe the other servant could chime in with something along the lines of, "I know it's hard, and it can be scary. I've messed up over and over again. But each time I do I go to my Master and tell Him I'm sorry, and He helps me make it right. What matters most is that you love Him enough to want to serve Him and be a part of what He's doing in the world and in all of us."

We need to support and encourage each other in living our Christian faith. This is why God gave us the Church. This is why we gather together to be fed by the Eucharist. I'm off to Mass.