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Scripture Reflection, November 16: God's Economy is not in Recession

Scripture Readings:
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Psalm 128
I Thessalonians: 5:1-6
Mt 25:14-30

Last week all newspapers in this country and world wide showed the same headlines: Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States! In many places you could see long lines of people in front of the kiosks to get hold of a newspaper reporting this historic event for America. There was a lot of talk about change and hope.
If you open the newspaper today, you’ll notice that we are ‘back to business’: the financial crisis, increasing unemployment, rising mortgage foreclosure problems. The word ‘hope’ gets quickly replaced by the word ‘fear’. Many people have deep concerns about their future and the well-being of their families.

The Scriptures of this Sunday also talk about ‘fear’. But the Bible makes us see ‘fear’ from a different point of view. The Psalm says: “Blessed are those who fear the Lord.” To ‘fear the Lord’ in the Bible means to have an attitude of respect, devotion and awe for God. It means to know who God is and who we are. He: the creator; We: the creatures. He: the all-powerful; We: the weak. He: the Lover; We: the Beloved. I think as human beings we are always tempted to go into one of the extremes: We either forget that there is Someone who created us and who leads history and mankind throughout the ages and we try to do everything on our own, putting human beings in the center of all existence. Or we see God as so majestic and powerful, that we really become afraid of Him – a fear that paralyzes and leads to passivity.

And that’s exactly what happened to the third servant: Whereas his companions who received five and two talents traded with them and made even more money, the third servant was too afraid to risk his master’s belongings and buried it in a hole in the ground.
It seems to me that all of them were aware that they were given great gifts. Even if it was only one talent, it was still a huge amount of money at that time. The first two servants though, even if they had respect for the master, also trusted him. They became active and did something constructive with the gifts they have been given. The third one instead was full of fear in its negative sense. Out of fear to make a mistake or lose the money, he didn’t do anything, except protect and defend what he had.

The moral of this parable really strikes us: “For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” What sounds like a pretty unjust statement becomes clear if we read it together with another word of the Gospel: “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing will be poured into your lap.” (Lk 6:38) In God’s economy ‘to have’ means ‘to give’. God has been generous with us, so we should be generous with others and give what we have, knowing that whatever we give to our neighbors, we give to God. Our relationship with God should be full of trust and confidence in his overflowing love. I think we all have experienced how much joy it gives to our hearts every time we freely give something to others and how God intervenes with his divine providence. It’s the logic of love: the more we give, the more we are enriched. And our giving can open the hands of others so that together we can reach out to all those who are in need.

Last week-end I saw a film about the life of Elizabeth Seton, the foundress of the Sisters of Charity and the first canonized American saint. She wasn’t a hero – her life was full of struggles. Her husband died when she was young. She lost everything they had and later two of her children passed away. But she was a passionate teacher and she followed the calling of her gift and decided to serve the poorest families in Emmitsburg as a teacher and to take care of their children. Within a short period of time her congregation spread throughout the whole country and grew to become a big charity organization.

We do not need to be heroes, but follow the calling of our gifts: generously, decidedly and radically. Most of the time God doesn’t ask big things from us, but to be faithful to Him in the small things of our daily life – like the woman in the first reading. I don’t think it will mean for us to work with wool and flax – but to do whatever we need to do with all our love and all our heart: write an Email, prepare a paper, study, work… We are invited to use our creativity, our intelligence and talents, trade with them and use them not only for ourselves, but to reach out to the community, to the people around us. That’s what God is calling us to day by day. We shouldn’t sit there, paralyzed by our fear of the future, waiting for the ‘big call’ or the return of the Messiah (not even in the person of a modern political leader), like the Christians in Paul’s letter. The text of the second reading reminds us to live our discipleship here and now, in the present moment!

Living with God in this way will truly make us happy. Love, true love will always be returned: “Give and gifts will be given to you…” The greatest gift that Jesus wants to give us is Himself. He gives us Himself in His words, in His promise to the Church as a community: “Where two or three are together in my name, I will be in their midst” (Mt 18,20) and He gives Himself to us in the Eucharist. Strengthened by His presence we can bring Christ’s love to others and truly be people of hope in this world.

I want to conclude with a poem of Teresa of Avila that I like a lot:

Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Teresa of Avila

Birgit Oberhofer

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