WEEKLY REFLECTION
Today, Jesus tells us another parable of judgment. We are approaching Advent season and, therefore, the end of the liturgical year is getting near.

By giving us life, God has also provided us with the possibility – smaller or bigger – of personal, ethical, and religious development. It does not matter if we have more or less, what matters is that what we have received has to yield some profit. The man of our parable, who hides his talent for fear of his master, did not want to run any risks: “But the man who received one [talent] went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's money” (Matthew 25:18).  Maybe the core of the parable is this: we must conceive a God that motivates us to come out of ourselves, who encourages us to the freedom of the Kingdom of God.

The word “talent” of this parable – which is nothing but a weight equivalent to 60 pounds, of silver – has become so popular that it is even used to show the qualities of a person. But the parable does not imply that the talents God has given us are only our possibilities but also our limitations. What we are and what we have, is the raw material out of which God wants to make something new with us. 

The phrase “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who are unproductive, even what they have will be taken from them” (Matthew 25:29), as a matter of fact, is not an aphorism to encourage consumption, but it can only be understood at the level of love and generosity. In fact, if we correspond to God's gifts while counting on his help, we shall then experience that it is actually Him who is paying the interest on the investment: “The stories of so many plain and good people, whom their faith have made them good, prove faith may produce very positive effects (...). And the other way round: we have to realize too that with the evaporation of our faith, our society has become much harder...” (–Pope Benedict XVI)