Readings: 1Cor 1:26-31; Ps 32: 12-13, 18-21; Matt 25:14-30.
We have a wonderful seam of spirituality in today’s selection of scriptural readings. Paul, the master of paradox, pits the weak against the strong, the unworldly against the haughty, simplicity against sophistication as a sign of the wisdom of God. In Christian tradition the figure of four is significant, the four Gospels and their evangelists, four marks of the church that we confess in the Creed (One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic). To the Corinthians, at the first time of asking, Paul proclaims the four cornerstones of the foundation that is Jesus Christ – wisdom and virtue, holiness and freedom. For God the wise are not those who think/talk about God in concepts and can handle the technology to communicate their cleverness with words but, as the Psalmist proclaims today, ‘those who ‘trust in his holy name’. Morally virtue equates to goodness; God’s goodness is grace, generously given ‘to those who hope in his love’.
At the outset of his Apostolic Exhortation Rejoice and Be Glad (2018) Pope Francis reminds readers that
‘What follows is not meant to be a treatise on holiness, containing definitions and distinctions helpful for understanding this important subject, or a discussion of the various means of sanctification. My modest goal is to repropose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time, with all its risks, challenges and opportunities’ (par. 2)
Holiness is a way of life in the world, always looking and leading to the horizon of heaven where the angels and saints await to welcome those who have walked and worked in the light of God’s Word. Freedom is the great desideratum of people throughout history, the longed for liberation from every form of limitation in life, situational or self-imposed, social or sinful.
The Gospel Parable of the Talents is a reminder that God’s call to be wise not in the way of the world, to be good and go against the grain of evil, to be(come) holy and fully free, finally in the face of death. With the Psalmist we can proclaim in praise and prayer: ‘Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own; Our soul is waiting for the Lord’.
Fr. Kevin O’Gorman SMA
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