November 19
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Blessed are those who fear the Lord.”
Readings
Reflection
Whether we believe it or not, God has invested a great deal of time, effort and hard work in creating us to be the best we can be. In the same way as the master in Jesus’ parable, God has gone on a journey and is trusting us to make some level of improvement on what he accomplished in us. We can be sure that someday God will come back to see what we have done with his creations–us. Our readings speak to the ideas that we can do well with what God has given us or we can do little to improve what we have been given with the time we given.
The first reading from the Book of Proverbs speaks about the perfect wife and what a treasure is to be found in her. She has clearly done a lot to maximize what God has given her, working with loving hands to raise a family of faith filled children who will go on to live lives of discipleship. In the second reading from the first letter to the Thessalonians, St Paul reminds us to be always ready for the Lord’s coming because we do not know when it will happen. The gospel parable tells of a master who entrusted his property to others and went away expecting to return to some improvement on his investments.
The implications of our readings are clear; It is not enough for us to simply say that we believe in God – we must put that faith into practice and live it out in our lives so that we may give glory to God and help others to come to know him. In this way we will have taken what he gave us and improved on it and helped build up his kingdom. God has blessed us with abilities and skills that can help us to show love for God and for our neighbors. The two servants used their talents to improve on the master’s investment, while the third was afraid to take a chance. Let us be brave and boldly put our talents to use as an investment in the Kingdom of God.
Keep the faith,
Deacon Dare
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