Matthew 25:16-21

Matthew 25:16

The Servants at Work.

I. It is the great law of labour which the Gospel affirms here, in the example of those two men doubling the talents they had received. The first gift of God is multiplied in their skilful and faithful hands. What is the nature of the labour of the industry of these faithful servants? Must we understand by it simply putting into activity natural gifts, physical strength, the intellect, the material resources which each man brings into this world? And did Jesus simply wish to give here a lesson upon order, upon economy, upon a good understanding of human life, as any Jewish Rabbi might have done had he judged, strange thing, that his compatriots had not their minds wakeful enough on this point, and that it was necessary to inculcate the spirit of calculation, and what might be called the genius for business? Such an explanation makes us smile. The ancient Church did not admit it. By the talents which are here spoken of, are usually understood all the graces purely spiritual which Jesus, Head of the Church, distributed to all its members, but in an unequal manner. This second explanation is worth infinitely more than the first, and yet it also is insufficient; the parable has a wider sense. The talents signify all graces which come to us from God, spiritual and natural gifts, graces of the soul or temporal benefits. All can be sanctified, all can be consecrated to God, all can be multiplied in Christian hands.

II. The essential, the most urgent, thing is not to do works of piety, works which can be counted, and which can be arranged under such and such a title. The essential, the most urgent, thing is to give our hearts to God in such a way that God once possessing them we serve Him wherever we go, and in whatever sphere we act. If such be the nature of the labour which God demands, what man is there who will dare to say that he cannot multiply for the service of God the gifts he has received? Nothing is excluded from His kingdom, nothing except sin. As long as the sun shines on your horizon; as long as the Gospel, that sun of the soul, gives you light; as long as you have a breath of light there is time to hope, there is time to begin again, there is time to count on Him who restores, who regenerates, who transforms the desert into a garden, and who causes water even to burst forth from a rock. "If any man be in Christ," says St. Paul, "... old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God."

E. Bersier, Sermons,p. 11.

Reference: Matthew 25:18. R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 209.