When Ability, Grace and Effort meet, the Christian is most Productive As we get close to the end of the liturgical year, the church places an important theological and eschatological issue before us: what does one need to be saved? In reflecting on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins last week, we did mention that one of the wrong elements in the decision of the virgins that were declared foolish was that they did not defer to the groom who by custom had the authority to arrive at the time of his choice. In modern era, the groom would have been held responsible for lacking in the civil duty of punctuality or at least for disrespect for keeping people in the dark about the exact time of his coming. In that sense, we would have been holding him as the real foolish person. So when we read again in the gospel of this Sunday of a man who was going on an indefinite journey disbursing money unequally to his servants, with a return date also not disclosed, we can guess that the modern man may shun such a deal. This is because the man of our time would want a contract that everything is well stipulated. However, the parable that Jesus used could not be called a contract in the real sense of it. This is because it all took place in an environment of grace; and this is what our experience is. It is also the reason Christianity does not easily appeal to a man who fails to appreciate the fact that a fulfilled life is not characterized by luck and effort alone. Therefore three things come into play in human salvation ability, effort and grace and they played roles in today’s gospel of the parable of the talents. In the first place, we read that the master in the story disbursed the money based on the ability of those servants. What could ability mean here? It signifies luck. It was not really what the servants acquired, that would have been capability. So abilities here are those dispositions in the servants that follow them in spite of themselves. They are talents. The servants did not work for them, yet they are there and can boost investment. The whole story was called the parable of the talents but I am not sure talents should take the center stage. The second thing is effort. This seems to be what was rewarded in the story and one who is not careful may also give it the center stage and may be call this the parable of human effort. This is also felt in real life why the key role of the divine in human salvation often seems overridden by human efforts. It is not a problem as far as people are really aware of the source of their salvation and that is why it remains correct to tell someone to work as if everything depends on oneself and pray as of everything depends on God. Effort was on course in parable. So much that from the time the master gave out the money to his servants we read that “Immediately the man who received the five thousand went to INVEST it and made another five. In the same way, the man who received the two thousand DOUBLED his figure.” These figures represent the efforts of the servants. Unfortunately, one of the servants did not think that effort was necessary. He may qualify as the grandfather of the theology of sola gratia. He managed to come up with some argument but nothing is as defenseless as a lie itself. Therefore, effort matters; it counts. However, it will be very wrong to let effort overshadow one’s journey in the Christian life. There is the third and the prime and most potent of the elements: grace. Grace features right from the beginning of the story. It was by grace in the first place that these servants found places in the heart and house of their master. Later, we were told he trusted them with his money without any overseer and went away. As far as the servants were concerned, the money was basically unmerited. Grace was proven to be at work when, at last, it became clear that the master was not out to do business. His whole aim was to make these men sharers of his treasures and so at the end he gives away both the capital and income: “Well done! You are an industrious and reliable servant. Since you were dependable in a small matter I will put you in charge of larger affairs. Come, SHARE your master’s joy!” In these we can see some similarity between this gospel and that of last Sunday. Here, the last servant could be likened to the foolish virgins and so can be called the foolish servant. His first point of foolishness was his inability to appreciate that being a servant of this master he had already crossed the threshold of “poverty” where his inabilities and shortcomings could no longer be able to determine his wellbeing. In other words, he did not appreciate the grace of being given a place in his master’s house and so kept his entire gaze on his lesser inabilities. His next point of foolishness was that he did not know that the master knew his abilities and so his limits and would not be looking for more than he knew he was to do. So, our efforts are expected to be equal to our talents (abilities). No wonder the latin adage ad impossiblia nemo tenetur (no one is condemned to do the impossible) and it is always relative to the individual. This foolish servant then could be guilty of presumption which made him spend his time in envy of the other servants for possessing more talents and having more money at their disposal. The truth remains if he were given more money it would still not be invested because he could not do more than his ability. His then was a case of denigration of ability and abuse of grace and that’s what anyone does who relegates the meriting power of efforts. It is true that in today’s world, there could be people who act the way the foolish servant acted in today’s parable, but our world may even be populated more with people who have the tendency and really overstretch the power of efforts. We are talking about people who wonder why others pray, why they praise, honor and worship God as the author of their lives and as the One who has called them to participation in divine glory. They are people whose works, successes, certificates or money is their god. They don’t believe they have anything which is not a product of a well-calculated and well-executed exploit. They see the less privileged, the poor, the weak, and the unlettered as just lazy men and women. They have three words for those whom circumstances have made subjects of unemployed benefits: GO AND WORK! Like the foolish servant, these too would have run out of track as they don’t even know the source of their strength and ability. They don’t even know why they haven’t been in the job market before and if they have it was for a better one and never during a great depression. For this reason, they won’t even be around when the real owner and source of the goods they have traded on will come for they have never expected any master. Yet the greatest illusion will be to live as if there will not be a day of reckoning. The reality of that is not modified by what we think or do. Jesus’ second coming will not depend on our perception of it; neither will he be held responsible for what we do or did not do. We will not even fault him for not giving a stipulated date and time of his arrival. The early Christians were not in doubt about Christ’s coming though they too were preoccupied about having a timetable, thus St Paul said “As regards specific times and moments, brothers, we do not need to write you; you know very well that the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night.” In this Mass brothers and sisters, we pray that while we are still here, that we employ through wise efforts, the abilities and graces God has bestowed on us through nature and the sacraments. May we attract greater things from the owner of all things from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year and, at the end eternal life with our Master. Amen.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 22:21:02 +0000