Ordinary Time

Jan 13 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading is taken from the second “servant song” of Isaiah. The servant has been called to bring the people back to God. However, this mission has been expanded to include all people. This servant is to be a light to all the nations. It is noteworthy that a people struggling with its own survival because of its defeat by a more powerful nation should envision its God as concerned with the salvation of all, presumably even the nation at whose hands it suffered. Yet this is precisely what “light to the nations” suggests.

Paul begins his letter to the Corinthians by identifying himself as an apostle, one sent by another with a commission. He was called to be an apostle; he did not volunteer. Therefore, as an apostle, it is the authority of Christ that he exercises. He maintains that all of this transpired because it was God’s will. In a very real sense, this official greeting is really a proclamation of faith on Paul’s part. Just as he had been called to be an apostle, so the members of the Corinthian church had been called to be holy.

The scene portrayed in today’s Gospel reading is familiar to many of us. It includes the report of the baptism of Jesus and the Baptist’s identification of Jesus as Lamb of God. John did not know Jesus. He only recognized him through divine revelation. John then contrasts the person of Jesus and himself, as well as the efficacy of their respective baptisms. Jesus may have come after John, but he ranks far above him. And their baptisms are very different. John baptized with water. Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit John saw descend on Jesus at the time of his baptism. This led John to testify to his belief in Jesus as the Son of God. These comparisons and this testimony point to Jesus as Son of God.

Jan 12 2025

Return on Investment

Another test! This time, it looks like the final in the evangelist Matthew’s finance class. Is there an eternal spreadsheet in heaven? Do the angels daily tabulate how much God has invested in us and how much we give back? When we get to the pearly gates, will St. Peter be holding out our heavenly balance sheet?

In today’s parable, “talents” were worth a thousand dollars each. In ancient times, the master who gave five talents, or five thousand dollars, invested a lot of money. Even one thousand dollars would have been a generous risk. Did he find the return on investment (ROI) worth it?

A mom gets up at 2:46 a.m. to tend to a vomiting four-year-old. A programmer sips his fourth cup of coffee to get the energy to put the final edits on a project. A coach invests long hours to improve her shooting forward’s free throws. Is the ROI worth it?

What are we to make of this parable? Is Jesus urging us toward a responsible lifestyle in which we carefully use (and not bury in the ground) the talents we have been given to build a better world? Is he telling us to dutifully invest the goods of faith toward lifting the lost? Yes and yes.

But even more than that, Christian life is not a bargaining “You gave me this, God, so I’ll give you that.” The mom may (or may not) make a return on the time she gives to her child in the middle of the night. She loves anyway. The Creator of the world will never make a balanced return on us. God loves anyway. God takes a risk on us. The Giver of gifts asks us to invest our lives in the boldest of schemes: follow Jesus wherever and however he leads. That is a grand venture. The ROI is out of this world.

Consider/Discuss

Have you ever cried out in frustration, “God, you owe me!” or “I deserve more!” How does the bargaining of a “balance-sheet Christianity” disparage the generosity of the risk-taking God? Are we willing to invest our lives and take a risk on the divine giver?
In abuse situations, children hide. When a boss’s temper is erratic, employees pull inward. If you had a hard taskmaster, would you feel like hiding your talents in the ground? What would help you to be willing to step out and take a risk?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of love, there is no way that I can give you back as much as I have been given. Do not let me see myself as a number on a heavenly balance sheet. Whatever you call me to do, help me to spend my life with love and generosity. I believe that this life is worth my best effort. Refresh my energy, for sometimes I feel it wearing out. You did not count the cost. Help me to do the same. For you, eternal God, have not just promised a “reward.” You have promised me yourself as my future.

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

The woman in this poem from Proverbs may be understood literally, as the “ideal wife,” or symbolically, as Wisdom. The Bible regularly extols wisdom as a great prize, worth more than gold or precious jewels, more than long life or power. As a personification of God’s will and reason, Wisdom imparts to those who befriend her all they need to be successful in the world and in their relationship with God. A human wife would have learned from Wisdom and thus manifested her teachings, which extend across the whole human experience, from practical household management to concern for the poor (what Wisdom would call “righteousness”) to fear of the Lord (the prerequisite for learning wisdom [Proverbs 9:10]).

The phrase “peace and security” was part of the propaganda of the Roman Empire, so Paul’s use of it here points toward those who are content with and profiting from the present age of human rule. These are unprepared, living as it were “at night” and in darkness, for the coming of the Lord. But for those who live in the light, who are hopefully waiting for the Lord and living accordingly, his advent will not come as an unpleasant surprise. Living in the day, they will not be asleep, but awake and ready. In other words, no one knows the “times or seasons,” but those who are living the Christian life will be prepared to meet the Lord whenever he comes.

The focus of the parable of the talents is on the unfortunate servant who failed to gain any profit for his master because he was afraid. The Lectionary translation has the servant characterizing his master as “demanding,” but the Greek word (skleiros) really means hard, harsh, or severe. The servant, afraid to trade because he might lose the money and incur the master’s wrath, failed to realize that the master showed confidence in him by giving him the talent and was willing to take a chance on him. The fault lay not in failing to gain any money, but in not even trying out of lack of trust in the master and his wisdom in giving the talent in the first place.

Jan 12 2025

Trembling, But Confident

A friend told me that this parable frightened her when she was little. What if she was foolish and forgot her oil and Jesus abandoned her and she was cast out into the darkness?

A teenager told me about a time when she was five years old. She had come in from playing, and found the curtains drawn and her darkened house empty. Her parents and siblings were nowhere. She sat down and sobbed, thinking that the end-times had come. Jesus had taken them and she had been left behind.

As the sun grows dimmer and the church calendar draws toward its close, we hear much about the final judgment. The Jews of Jesus’ day expected Almighty God to declare war on evil at any moment and hold all people accountable for their deeds. Some of Jesus’ apocalyptic words feel foreboding. Be ready. The end is coming. If there is “a test,” will I pass it? Am I Christian enough? Might I be among the foolish, one who has messed up just too many times?

On the other hand, we might identify with the smart virgins: I am pious. I say my prayers. I am Christian enough. Perhaps everyone will “pass” at the end of time, for God is merciful. Might God choose to hand everyone an “A”?

Which is it? Well—both—and neither.

Yes, the end is coming, whether at our own death or at the conclusion of time. But panic only paralyzes, and presumption makes us imprudent. In wisdom, how are we to approach the Blessed One at judgment? Holy fear and a bit of awestruck trembling are needed. So is the graced conviction that we are profoundly loved and radically forgiven. Awe and confidence walk together hand in hand.

Consider/Discuss

Christian faith is full of paradox. As we prepare for “the end,” how do we keep a healthy balance between holy fear and graced confidence? Toward which side do you tend to lean?
Should the “wise” virgins give some of their oil to the “foolish” ones? Should God give everyone an “A” on the final exam? Why or why not?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus our Bridegroom, you don’t only come in a rush at the end of time. Sometimes you tiptoe in quietly and beckon to us in the depths of our conscience. We know that our end is coming. Give us a touch of holy fear to help us heed you now so we are ready then. Do not let our love grow cold as we wait for you. Come to us, Spirit of warmth, and keep our lamps burning brightly.

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

The figure of Woman (or Lady) Wisdom constantly seeks to instruct anyone who will listen. As “the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness” (7:26), she is the perfect teacher. She is not aloof or inaccessible, but is available to anyone who seeks her out, watching for her, keeping vigil, as she moves through life making her presence known. But only those who work to master her teachings and conform their lives to them are “worthy of her.” Those who do so will gain prudence and wisdom and thus become “righteous.” Those who forsake her teaching, on the other hand, will be remain “foolish” and therefore “unrighteous.”

The Thessalonians were apparently concerned that those who had died before the return of Christ had perished. Paul reminds them that the resurrection of Christ was only the beginning, that all the baptized would be raised as Christ was. This is why Paul can refer to the dead as having merely “fallen asleep.” In fact, at the glorious coming of Christ, the dead, having been raised, will be the first to join Christ in his glory. Drawing on standard apocalyptic images (angels, trumpets, Christ coming on clouds), Paul paints an image of the parousia, the hinge-point between the present age and the coming age. Paul’s audience is assured that, dead or alive, those who are in Christ will be with him forever.

The parable of the ten virgins draws on the biblical wisdom motif of the distinction between the wise and the foolish. The wise are those who seek to understand the will of God and to live accordingly; they are the righteous. The foolish are not necessarily intellectually stupid, but they are “spiritually” stupid, often wicked, and certainly on the wrong path. In the parable, the foolish virgins represent those who are unprepared because they have failed to heed Jesus’ teaching. Readers sometimes fault the wise virgins for being stingy, but the point is that the wise are able to do nothing for the foolish when they wait until it is too late to order their lives properly.