Homily for Wednesday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Theme: THE PARABLE OF THE TEN GOLD COINS….. “Put this money to work until I get back”
By: Fr. Pere SUÑER i Puig SJ
(Barcelona, Spain)
Homily for Wednesday November 17 2021
Today, the Gospel proposes us the parable of the pounds: an amount of money that a noble man gives out to his servants, before leaving for a far country. First, let us pay attention to the occasion provoking Jesus’ parable. He was “getting near” Jerusalem, where He was to face his Passion and his subsequent resurrection. The disciples «with him thought that God’s reign was about to appear» (Lk 19:11). Under these circumstances Jesus proposes this parable. With it, Jesus teaches us that we have to put the gifts and qualities He has given each one of us, to work. They are not “ours” for us to do whatever we want with them. He has given them to us in trust so that we can yield a return. Those who had yielded a profit from the pounds were —more or less— praised and rewarded by their Lord. It was for the loafer servant, who kept the moneys in safekeeping without getting any pay-off, to get the blame and be punished.
We, Christians, must —naturally!— wait for our Lord Jesus’ return. But, if we want the meeting to be friendly, we must meet both of the following two conditions. The first one is for us to avoid any unhealthy curiosity to know the timing of the Lord’s solemn and victorious return. He will come, He says somewhere else, when we least expect it. So, quit worrying over that. Let us wait with hope, but with a hope without any unhealthy curiousness. The second condition is that we waste no time. Waiting for this meeting and joyous final cannot be taken as a reason not to seriously look at the present moment. Because the joy and enjoyment of the final gathering will precisely be the better depending upon each one’s contribution, in our present life, to the cause of the Kingdom of God.
And we shall not miss here either Jesus’ grave warning to those rebelling against him: «As for my enemies who did not want me to be king, bring them in and execute them right here in my presence» (Lk 19:27).
Fr. Pere SUÑER i Puig SJ
(Barcelona, Spain)
