Become the Light
Times in our world seem full of darkness, what with unspeakably horrible war atrocities, and yet another school shooting. Too, we are faced with personal struggles : sickness, loss, divorce, and so on. Life can be difficult, that's for sure. Yet there is great hope to be found when we listen to the Master in the Gospel (which means Good News.)
Read Matthew 25:14-30
In his parable about the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus praises the two who have used their talents to earn more money, but the one who buried it in the ground gets into a lot of trouble. In fact, he is thrown out into darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Is this fair? What did he do that was so terrible?
But Jesus is not in the fairness business, nor is Jesus in the safety business. Jesus is in the business of growing souls, developing people and increasing their wealth as human beings. Jesus is in the business of giving everything, even unto death. Everything!
The person who is unwilling to take a risk at anything new is not going to grow but is going to remain stagnant. It isn’t just the young, the adventurous and the energetic who are able to take risks. No matter our circumstance, we can all take risks.
But what risks does Jesus have in mind?
He is talking about taking “his property” that he has entrusted to us and turning it into something more by investing it in some way.
He is talking about getting over our fear of what other people might say, of our inadequacy in new situations, or anything at all that stands in our way to increase the harvest of goodness in the lives of those around us, and in our own lives also.
The man who is given one talent (worth about 1000 dollars and considered back then to be almost half a year’s salary) may not be as capable as the other two people who are given a greater share of the Master’s property. Still, he has just as much opportunity to increase its value as the others. He could have outshone them if he’d tried.
But the truth is he does not understand the opportunity that is before him. He says: “Master, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.”
Where does he come up with the idea that the Master, Jesus, is a hard man? He is obviously misinformed, latching onto his own ideas, and his own pettiness. He reaps what he has sewn. What he believes comes back and bites him. Jesus responds to his ignorance by throwing him outside into the darkness.
But he was already in the darkness.
His lack of understanding was a form of darkness.
His wrong thinking was a form of darkness.
His fear was a form of darkness.
God is abundantly giving. God is light.
Those who give without worry about who is getting what back, those who generously share all they are and all they’ve learned for the good of other people and the world will always grow in more goodness and abundance.
They become the light because they are givers of the light.
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Listen:
Send the Light (old Gospel song)
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