Commentary
Sunday, 11/19/2017, Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Love and Faith Make a Perfect Marriage
First Reading Commentary: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Today’s reading from the Book of Proverbs speaks of what one might consider as being the perfect marriage. What Proverbs describes is the dedication, loyalty and commitment that a wife should give to her husband and a husband should give to his wife. In effect, it is the love between a husband and wife which exists in a successful marriage.
When we consider this, we have to remember that love comes from God. We have to remember that love is God and God is love. True love in a marriage is a blessing that comes from God and it is a demonstration of two people’s love of God. Therefore, where there is love in a marriage, there is also faith in God because God is also faith.
Those who have faith in God: want to please God, because of their love for God. They are grateful for God’s many blessings so they give Him praise and glory. But they don’t stop there—they also serve God, trust God and are dedicated, loyal and committed to God always willing to do whatever pleases God.
When we give ourselves to God in this way, we are worthy in God’s eyes. The same is true between two people who trust each other and give themselves to each other with total dedication, loyalty and commitment in marriage. So, Proverbs tells us that a man entrusts his heart to a wife who is worthy because her value is beyond pearls and she is an unfailing prize.
Let’s look at two words in that statement: entrusts and unfailing. They set the tone for one of the primary messages in this reading.
When a husband entrusts his heart to his wife, he believes in her. He has faith in her and never doubts her love for him. He never doubts whether she will stand by him or not for he knows that she will. He knows that when she said, “For better or for worse until death do us part,” that those were not just words that were part of the ceremony—she meant what she said. In other words, a husband entrusts his heart to his wife because he knows that her faith in him will never fail.
For that reason, he takes her into his life as his partner because she is worthy and she is more precious to him than all the riches on earth. Our spouse is our partner in life but God who is our Creator and Savior considers us worthy and more precious than anything else that He has created because we are His spouse. A perfect union with God is a perfect marriage.
Don’t Let Your Faith Go to Sleep
Second Reading Commentary: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Today, we have yet another excerpt from one of Paul’s letters, in which the message can be summed up in one simple phrase: Keep the faith. This is not simply an opinion of Paul. It is gospel and he turns to several of the gospels referring to things that Jesus said in delivering today’s message.
Paul said, “Concerning times and seasons…you have no need for anything to be written to you.” It is not the weather that Paul is talking about. He is making reference to the fact that we do not know when Christ will come again but those who have faith will be ready and will not need to be told to get ready.
Paul enforces that point by saying, “For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.” Jesus delivered this message Himself in the Parable of the Unknown Day and Hour, Matthew 24:36-44 and again in the Parable of the Faithful or the Unfaithful Servant, Matthew 24:45-51.
We use locks and security systems to protect ourselves against thieves. Without them, we just as well hand our belongings over to the thieves. If our possessions here on earth are worth protecting, our souls should surely be worth protecting. Those who do not have faith in God have the right to make that choice but they will not be ready or prepared to enter the Kingdom and will be denied because they did not take the precaution of protecting their souls with faith.
Paul goes on by saying, “But you…are not in darkness…For all of you are children of the light and children of the day.” Remember John 8:12 where Jesus said, “I AM the Light of the world?” In that statement, Jesus not only tells us that He is our Guiding Light, He also proclaims His divinity and testifies to His being with the Father at the beginning when the Father said, “Let there be light.” Genesis 1:3 Therefore, we are God’s children and if we have faith in Jesus and His Father, we are children of the Light and will not be in darkness.
We can save ourselves from the destruction of darkness by having our faith in-tact and Paul refers to yet another gospel when he says, “Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.” Jesus delivered this message in the Parable of the Ten Virgins, Matthew 25:1-13.
God never sleeps. He is always awake taking care of us and blessing us with the things that we need in order to come to Him in the Kingdom. Our faith should never sleep. Even when our bodies are asleep, our faith should be wide awake. If it is, we will be ready no matter the day or the hour.
Be a Good Steward—Use What the Good Lord Gave You
Gospel Commentary:Matthew 25:14-30
A man went on a journey and entrusted three of his servants with his possessions. To one servant he gave five talents, to the second servant, he gave two talents and he gave one talent to the third. The first two servants traded them and doubled what they had. But the third servant dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money.
Jesus told a story of three servants who were entrusted with their master’s money but Jesus was talking about something much more important than money. The real message in this gospel is not about money. God has provided us with many gifts in life and God wants us to use what is given to us in a responsible way even if that means taking a risk.
Yes, we should show our love for our neighbor through charity helping those who are in need. You could interpret this gospel to mean that we should use the physical gifts that we have in an unselfish way, and you would be right. You could even say that Jesus is telling us not to be like the third servant who was afraid to take a risk because sometimes we have to just put our faith in God and take that risk in life. That is also true but that is another commentary.
This commentary is about pleasing God by being good stewards of our faith by sharing it. Sharing our faith is risky because some people do not want to hear God’s Word and worse yet, some people do not believe in God. We take the risk of being criticized, thought of as crazy and even persecuted—sometimes by those who are closest to us. But when we share the gifts that God has given us by proclaiming the Gospel, God gives us more gifts and shares His joy with us in heaven.
When we invest in each other by sharing our faith with each other for God’s glory, what we put out; comes back to us with much more interest in heaven than we can measure. We are entrusted with what God has given to us for that purpose. This sounds like evangelization and it is. But sharing our faith also includes praying with and for each other. If one of us prays for something, that prayer is multiplied by each person who also prays for that intention.
In the gospel, the master returns and settles accounts with his servants. The servants who doubled their talents are told by the master, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.”
The servant with one talent said to the master, “I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear, I went off and buried your talent in the ground.”
One could be misled into believing that the master should have been happy that the servant kept the talent safe. That could be true if Jesus was really talking about money. But money only has value here on earth and this parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let’s take a closer look at what the servant said to the master. God is demanding and Jesus is telling us that the Father does demand that we use what is given to us. When I consider the phrase, “…harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter…” I am reminded of the Israelites (the descendants of Abraham in the Old Testament) and the Apostles. The Israelites were God’s chosen people. It is with them that the Father scattered His seed and Jesus focused His ministry on the Jews but commissioned the Apostles to go and teach to all nations. He commanded the Apostles to go where the seed was not planted and that is what we are expected to do.
So, the master said, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant…Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have gotten it back with interest…Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given…but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness…”
Faith is a wonderful gift and I have commented before that everything starts with faith because we have to believe in order to love God and follow Him. But when we keep our faith to ourselves and refuse to share it with others, because of fear of being persecuted or any other reason, we are not good stewards and God considers us to be wicked and lazy. We may not be called as individuals to evangelize in a physical way by preaching or going door-to-door or that sort of thing, but as I said before, we share our faith when we pray with and for each other and there is nothing to stop anyone from at least doing that. If we refuse to at least share our faith in prayer, we are useless and instead of sharing the master’s joy, we will be thrown into the darkness.
So, the next time you are presented with the opportunity of sharing your faith and you get cold feet, remember the servant with the one talent. Instead, be a good steward by sharing your faith because it will bring great rewards to you because it pleases God.
