You have been faithful in the little, come to the banquet of your Lord: Commentary Fr. Jorge Miró

Fr. Jorge Miró shares with the readers of Exaudi his commentary on today’s Gospel, Sunday 19 November 2023, entitled “You have been faithful for a little, go on to the banquet of your Lord”.

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We hear in the Gospel the parable of the talents, with which the Lord calls us to conversion, to gratuitousness.

All that you are and all that you have is God’s gift. You have not given life to yourself. In addition to life, God has given you other gifts: natural capacities (such as intelligence, sympathy, and artistic qualities…); also the gift of faith, and specific charisms that the Spirit gives you for a mission that he entrusts to you. Everything is a gift, everything is grace.

We have no ‘right’ to these talents. They are free gifts that God gives as He wills and when He wills; and they are destined not for personal self-aggrandizement but for the good of the community, which grows under the action of the Holy Spirit.

The first of these gifts is the Holy Spirit himself, who has been poured into our hearts and puts in them charity, and brotherly love (cf. Rom 5:5).

This parable invites you to discover the talents you have received from God. What are your charisms?

You also need to check whether you are making your talents work well and ask yourself how you can improve them. What are you doing with your talents? What are you doing with your time, your money, your youth, your strength, your vigour, your knowledge, your sympathy…?

You have received talents from the Lord as gifts that you must make fruitful in your life. From those who have much, much is required; from those who have little, little is required.

What can you do to make these gifts bear fruit? The Word has given us two clues: the Psalm and the Alleluia verse: Blessed is he who fears the Lord and follows his ways, and Abide in me, and I in you; he who abides in me bears fruit abundantly.

To be vigilant is to be faithful to the gifts and mission received; it is to remain united to the Lord: in prayer, in listening to and confidently accepting the Word, in the Eucharist, in ecclesial communion, in generous service to our brothers and sisters; it is to live with joy and generosity the vocation to which the Lord has called you.

It is to take seriously your life and the mission that the Lord has entrusted to you.

To hope for the Kingdom of God is to work and risk for it. The idleness of the idler is very serious: deep down, the servant does not know God; he wants to live in a false security.

Courage! Be brave! Don’t be afraid to give your talents! You will receive a hundredfold. For to the one who has will be given, and he will have more than enough, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

Come, Holy Spirit! (cf. Lk 11:13).