The focus of today’s Gospel (it’s the one about the talents if you don’t know the Catholic daily readings for today) is on servants given talents: 5 talents, 2 talents and 1 talent. If you know the story, the ones with multiple talents double their portion, but the servant with 1 talent goes and buries his in a field to return it to his Master. When I read this Gospel, I usually focus on the burying or hiding, how the person gave up, but today it struck me differently, I thought about how hard it is to give away the little you have.
I am usually annoyed with the guy who buries his talent in the field. I often feel like, why would you do that? I often have equated it to actual talents (gifts like communication, preaching, writing, etc) rather than money, but today I thought about it as money. I thought if I were in that servant’s shoes and I knew I wasn’t that great of a negotiator, what would I have done? Would I have trusted myself enough to go into the marketplace and take the risk of losing it all?
If I’m honest, I might’ve gotten to the marketplace but kept that talent in my pocket. I probably would’ve watched the other two servants wheeling and dealing and felt discouraged. I would’ve felt like I can’t compete with that.
It’s not like this servant could leverage the Master in negotiations. At the point the talent is handed off, he is on his own. The servant has to find the courage, the perseverance, and the blinders to believe that even though he was given less in comparison to the other two, he was still given something, and it’s something that can be multiplied. Maybe not to 10, but to 2.
Still, the question lingers in my mind, but what if he had lost something, what then? Well, really nothing would have changed. In the end, if he had lost the talent in negotiations, he ends up in the same place as if he had buried the talent. He ends up with empty hands.
On the flip side, we don’t know what happens if he had tried. We assume that his talent would’ve been doubled, but what if it had been more than doubled? We see time and time again what God does with the absurdly little–multiplying fish and loaves, multiplying the flour of the widow, water from a rock, manna in the desert, David and a slingshot, Joseph and a dream. I could continue, but you get the point.
The Gospel ends with “for to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Matthew 25:29 Today, I am reading this not in the measurement of talents or gifts, but instead in effort–for to everyone who has tried/worked/risked/responded/loved more will be given and from the one who has not tried/worked/risked/responded/loved, even what he has will be taken away.
God isn’t necessarily looking for “things” from us, but he is looking for a cooperation with the Spirit, whether He gives us a massive wave of the Holy Spirit or an almost imperceptible prompting. It is up to us to either to take it and use it OR take note of it, but instead do nothing.
God will have nothing to question if you step out in faith, but He will have questions for you if you bury yourself in fear. So today the question is, what are you protecting that you might be called to give? Or perhaps better yet, what are you afraid to do that could be multiplied in mind blowing ways if you just took the risk and tried?
P.S. Arguably, being given less requires greater faith, than when you are given more to work with. It requires both greater faith in God and in yourself–that God would’ve given you something special to serve Him. Cultivate that faith so fear has no space in your choices. If He has called you, trust there is enough to be multiplied.
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