Ortus Christi: Meditations for Advent

by Mother St. Paul

(He) "called His servants." They are His own servants, He has created them, He has bought them with His Blood, they belong to Him—their service, their time, their very lives are His, and this not because they are slaves forced to labour, but because of their own free will and out of love and gratitude to Him who has bought them from the cruel slavery of sin, they have said: "I love my Master ... I will not go out free" (Ex. xxi. 5).

"And (He) delivered to them His goods." They are His goods not the servants', they all belong to Him and He entrusts them to His servants to take care of them and to do the best they can with them while He is gone. What are these "goods?" All the good things which God has given to man—his life, his preservation, his Baptism, his christian education, intellect, faith, health, rank, wealth, talents, conscience, opportunities of doing good, position,—and all have to be traded with, for the Master to Whom they belong. His "goods" include too what the world would label "evils"—ill-health, difficulty, failure, poverty, incapability; these have to be traded with too, and there is often a higher profit to be made out of these than out of the others. They are all the Master's goods and He delivers them to His servants.

"To one He gave five talents and to another two and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability." He knows His servants, and He knows exactly the strength and capability of each. He measures each burden before imposing it and calculates each sum before giving it. This servant can manage five, this one two, this can only manage one. It is no disgrace to have only one talent, the ability of the servants is the Master's affair, not the servants'. They cannot turn to Him and say: "Why hast Thou made me thus?" (Rom. ix. 20). He makes each one according to His own Will and endows him according to His Will too. What the servant has to remember is that he is responsible for all that is entrusted to him, that he can trade with it and that it is not too much for him, it is "according to his proper ability," and that though his Master will never try to reap where He has not sown, He will expect to reap where He has sown, He will expect a harvest from each talent.

Point II. The Traders.

"He that had received the five talents went his way and traded with the same and gained other five." He lost no time, he loved his Master and he loved the "goods" because they belonged to his Master and because they had been lent by Him. The whole of their value lay in the fact that they were the Master's; he felt responsible, he must not only take care of them but put them to the best account, and so he set to work at once to trade with them, and he did well, for he gained cent per cent!

"And in like manner he that had received the two gained other two." There was no jealousy, no thinking the Master partial or that He had underrated his powers in only giving him two talents. He loved and trusted his Master; the two talents were very precious because they were His and because He had chosen them out with such love and care, giving the servant just what he could manage, no more and no less. He went and traded and did as well as the first, cent per cent.

Thus the good servants, that is those who love, who have said, I will not go out free, are always trading for their Master. They say to themselves: This talent, this time, this opportunity, this health, this strength belongs to my Master not to me, I must use it for Him. They forget sometimes; the Master is so long away and they act as if the goods were their own, and even trade with them for their own profit, using their talents to attract people to themselves rather than to their Master! But as they really love Him and want to "trade" for Him only, they see the dishonesty of their trading and they do their best by acts of reparation to restore to Him His own. When He comes back, He will not expect perfection but effort. Some, He says, will gain "a hundred fold" but for our consolation and encouragement He adds: "some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold" (St. Matt. xiii. 8).

"But he that had received the one, going his way digged into the earth, and hid his lord's money." He lost no time either, his mind was made up at once, he would take no trouble, make no effort, would hide his Master's talent and forget all about it; he wanted no responsibility, he could not be troubled with "trading." His Master could not expect much from him, he argued, because he had entrusted so little to him, he knew he was not capable of doing much, but he would do nothing at all. He did not waste or spoil his Master's goods, his sin was one of omission—you did it not to Me. He dug in the earth instead of laying up treasure in Heaven.

Point III. The Reckoning.