November 19, Sunday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Daily Readings: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1Thessalonians 5: 1-6; Matthew 25: 14-30 18: 1 – 8
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand (Isaiah 41: 10). This is one example of the promises of God, which encourage men not to have fear in life. God assures his saving presence so that we are freed from our fears. What will happen because of fear in life? Why should we not have fear in life? Today’s readings educate us about fear.
The gospel for today describes a master who bestows talents upon his servants while on his voyage. Here, it is necessary to examine a few aspects in greater depth. The initial consideration is the master's cognizance of his servants' capabilities. According to their capacities, he distributed five, two, and one talent to the three of his servants (Matthew 25:15).
Second, the master gives not a few but a huge sum of money to his servants. The master gets angry because the third one just buried this huge sum of money without using it. The reason he gave was that he feared the master.
Fear is like a poison that can freeze you from making progress. This is what happened to the servant. Because he is afraid of the master, he can neither put money into the business and double it (fight) nor invest money with the bankers (fly). He simply buried the money. It was only his fear that stopped him from making new attempts to multiply the talent. Rather, the first two were able to get into the business and multiply it.
Today’s first reading also praises the wife, who could be productive. Today, we can also think of ourselves as servants. God has given us enormous energy and talents to make our lives better. But our fear of failure hinders us from making new efforts to better our lives.
In this regard, we must have the courage to devise novel endeavors to better our lives. As a master, God will inquire, "What have you accomplished with the entirety of your life and the abilities that I have bestowed upon you?"
Talents must be multiplied not only for our benefit but also for the benefit of the universe.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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