Tuesday, November 12, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 25:23-30

"His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.” Last came forward the man who had the single talent. “Sir,” said he, “I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you had not sown and gathering where you had not scattered; so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have got my money back with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”

Reflection

The end is harsh. Are you so harsh as this, Jesus? Is the judgment of human souls as unyielding and unremitting as this?

It contradicts my every image of your mercy. And, yes, I know that is what your parables are wont to do. But it is you who again and again have revealed to this soul your abiding hunger to bring all into your happiness.

You have revealed the immensity of your joy as you stand at the door and welcome all to share in the goodness that has neither beginning nor end, no source but your own divine heart.

How can such mercy and this harshness co-exist? The poor man merely did what fear dictated he must do to protect himself from the master’s hardness. There have been times when I did much the same, guarding myself from the hard judgment of one I feared. This happens in millions of homes and work places every day.

The poor servant ended up not in your happiness but in the outer darkness where the light of your mercy is not known. And this is what I most fear.

It seems that if fear dictates our action, we wind up in the place we flee. We lose what we sought to protect. We land in the darkness instead of the light of your face.

So what shall I do?

“Live,” you say in clearest whisper. “Live. Give yourself to me. Forget your reserve. Hold nothing back.

“There is nothing to fear, except losing me. Throw you heart into the fullness of love’s labor, and you will enter my happiness.”

Pr. David L. Miller