“So I was afraid…”

The Gospel reading at the Mass this morning was from Matthew 25:14–30, “The Parable of the Talents.” It is one of the better known parables our Lord told. Matthew positions it between the parable of the ten bridesmaids and the judgment of the nations. I won’t reiterate it here, but I encourage you to take time to read it.

As you may remember there is a man who goes on a trip and he entrusts his property to three slaves: to one ten talents, to another five, and to a third one talent. The slave with one talent, we are told, “went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money” (Matthew 25:18 NRSV).

When the master returns, he asks all the slaves to give an account, and the man with the one talent replies, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours” (Matthew 25:24–25 NRSV). The master was not at all pleased with the slave and had him thrown “into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30 NRSV).

Fr. Tim highlighted one part of the parable to speak on in his homily, which I have highlighted above. “So I was afraid…” and I basically did nothing with what you gave me. How often do we not take action out of fear? We might be afraid to take a stand for Jesus, His kingdom and His Church. We might be afraid to say “no” in the face of peer pressure or temptation because we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. We may be afraid to use our talents or gifts to serve the Church and others because we diminish the gift we have been given.

Back on April 14, I confessed that fear to my confessor. I wrote about it in one of my earlier blogs. It took me almost four months to obey the impression I had from our Lord and the direct word from my priest to start blogging. This morning’s word from Fr. Tim was another confirmation that I cannot live in my little “monastic cell” and let everything go on around me. There is great joy in obedience! There is a whole lot to lose in disobedience. I will not be afraid!