20141116 ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE LIFE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US BY
LIVING FULLY AT EVERY MOMENT IN OUR LIFE
First
reading
Proverbs
31:10-13,19-20,30-31 ©
A
perfect wife – who can find her?
She is far beyond the price of pearls.
Her
husband’s heart has confidence in her,
from her he will derive no little profit.
Advantage
and not hurt she brings him
all the days of her life.
She
is always busy with wool and with flax,
she does her work with eager hands.
She
sets her hands to the distaff,
her fingers grasp the spindle.
She
holds out her hand to the poor,
she opens her arms to the needy.
Charm
is deceitful, and beauty empty;
the woman who is wise is the one to praise.
Give
her a share in what her hands have worked for,
and let her works tell her praises at the
city gates.
Psalm Psalm 127:1-5 ©
O
blessed are those who fear the Lord.
O
blessed are those who fear the Lord
and walk in his ways!
By
the labour of your hands you shall eat.
You will be happy and prosper.
O
blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your
wife like a fruitful vine
in the heart of your house;
your
children like shoots of the olive,
around your table.
O
blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Indeed
thus shall be blessed
the man who fears the Lord.
May
the Lord bless you from Zion
all the days of your life!
O
blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Second
reading
1
Thessalonians 5:1-6 ©
You
will not be expecting us to write anything to you, brothers, about ‘times and
seasons’, since you know very well that the Day of the Lord is going to come
like a thief in the night. It is when people are saying, ‘How quiet and
peaceful it is’ that the worst suddenly happens, as suddenly as labour pains
come on a pregnant woman; and there will be no way for anybody to evade it.
But it is not as if you live in the dark, my
brothers, for that Day to overtake you like a thief. No, you are all sons of
light and sons of the day: we do not belong to the night or to darkness, so we
should not go on sleeping, as everyone else does, but stay wide awake and
sober.
Gospel
Acclamation Rv2:10
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Even
if you have to die, says the Lord,
keep
faithful, and I will give you
the
crown of life.
Alleluia!
Or Jn15:4,5
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Make
your home in me, as I make mine in you.
Whoever
remains in me bears fruit in plenty.
Alleluia!
EITHER:
Gospel
Matthew
25:14-30 ©
Jesus
spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on
his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To
one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to
his ability. Then he set out.
‘The man who had received the five talents
promptly went and traded with them and made five more. The man who had received
two made two more in the same way. But the man who had received one went off
and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
‘Now a long time after, the master of those
servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had
received the five talents came forward bringing five more. “Sir,” he said “you
entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.”
‘His master said to him, “Well done, good and
faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust
you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”
‘Next the man with the two talents came
forward. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more
that I have made.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful
servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you
with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”
‘Last came forward the man who had the one
talent. “Sir,” said he “I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have
not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; so I was afraid, and I
went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have
it back.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you
knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered?
Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my
return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent
from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who
has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who
has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing
servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding
of teeth.”’
OR:
Alternative
Gospel
Matthew
25:14-15,19-21 ©
Jesus
spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on
his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To
one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to
his ability. Then he set out.
‘Now a long time after, the master of those
servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had
received the five talents came forward bringing five more. “Sir,” he said “you
entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.”’
ACCOUNTABILITY
TO THE LIFE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US BY LIVING FULLY AT EVERY MOMENT IN OUR LIFE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: PROV 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1 THESS 5:1-6; MT 25:14-30
As we
come towards the end of the liturgical year, the emphasis of the liturgy is
concerned with the end of our sojourn on earth. Indeed, this is
appropriately illustrated in the parable told by Jesus in today’s gospel.
The man who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them because he
was on his way abroad exemplifies our sojourn on this earth. Jesus
who has gone away in His ascension has entrusted the gospel to each one of
us. The question therefore is that until the second coming of Christ,
we are now called upon to be faithful to the work entrusted to us in
building up His kingdom.
How then are we, according to our
ability, acting responsibly in building up that kingdom? Now,
there is no need to perform in the kingdom. God does not act like a CEO,
expecting us to reap more than what He has given us. In the parable, we
are told that the worthy servants, those who have five and two talents reaped a
hundred per cent of what was given to them. In other words, they lived
their lives to the fullest. And that is what God only wants of us.
We need not be too anxious or jittery about being productive. But certainly
what is required from us is that we be true to what God has given us and we
make full use of what has been given to us. In other words, all
that God wants from us is that we live our life to the fullest and not less
than our capacity.
To live our life to the
fullest therefore implies that we must take risks in living. A
truly meaningful life requires that we take risks. Only when there
are risks, can we be fully alert to life. This is what St Paul is
reminding us in the second reading. He urged the Thessalonians to be
aware that the “Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the
night.” Because we do not know when the Lord is coming, just as we do not
know when the thief could break in, we must therefore always be alert and
attentive. We cannot afford to be asleep. We must stay awake and be
sober.
To stay awake means
therefore that we must give ourselves totally to whatever we are doing at
the moment. The example given to us is found in the first reading
when the book of Proverbs speaks of the perfect wife. She is one who is
always about doing things, busying herself all the days of her life, concerned
for the family and for the poor. Such a wife is truly wise, according to
the book of proverbs, because she “let her works tell her praises at the city
gates.” Yes, only when we are fully involved with life in a positive,
creative and contributive way, do we find life meaningful and exciting.
When we live this kind of life, then we can be said to be already having a
foretaste of the kingdom already.
However, if we are like the
unfaithful servant, who is afraid to take risks and so could afford to fall
asleep throughout the day, then life would be passing us by and it passed him
by. The truth is many of us who are asleep and not living our lives
fully will one day wake up to regret that we have not yet
begun to live.
Some of us are drunk and
are involved in things that do not really matter. We waste time
gossiping, taking revenge, getting angry, being resentful of our past, etc and
therefore never even begin to live. Such a person is condemned by Jesus
because we have not only deprived ourselves of the kingdom in this life but
also in the next as well.
Consequently, today we
are called to be accountable to ourselves, to God and our fellow human beings
by living fully at every moment, doing whatever good we can so that when we
come to our death-bed, we would not regret that we have not yet lived.
But if we have lived fully in this life, then when we meet the Lord, He will
then say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant, you have shown you
can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join
in your master’s happiness.” Indeed, if we do not know how to appreciate
the gifts that God has given to us in this life, how can we ever appreciate the
eternal gifts that God wants to give us in the next life? So let us first
begin by living out the life that He has given to us so that we can share in
that fullness of life at the end of our pilgrimage.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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