The other day I was listening to a rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond. One of the TV kids asked her TV Daddy: “If we are all going to heaven when we die, why do we have to spend time here on earth?” This weekend we have another parable about time, the time until the Master returns, our life-time on earth. In the parable, three servants receive different sums of money (“talents”) to manage while their master is away. The first two servants invest in worthwhile projects, but when the master returns, the third servant tells him: I knew you were a demanding person … so out of fear I … buried your talent in the ground. Perhaps this parable was directed at people in the early Christian community who did nothing responsible or productive because they figured the end of time might be tomorrow, so why bother exerting oneself! For us perhaps the lesson is more about risk: The servant would not take a risk for fear that his investment would fail and he would lose everything. This truly is a modern temptation. Life itself, and especially discipleship life, is a risk. Marrying or making a vow as a priest or nun is a risk; bearing children is a huge risk. Volunteering is a risk; picking up the phone or starting an email to someone who does not like you, or whom you need to forgive, is a risk; standing up for something right or against something wrong is a risk. For Jesus, going into Jerusalem was a risk that seemed to end in failure, his death. But his death taught us that the only real failure is not having the courage to put our love “out there,” where it might be trampled on or rejected. A powerful lesson for our week!
– Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia