SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message)
BY HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM
SUNDAY THE SIXTH OF MATTHEW (OF THE TALENTS)
(11-2-2024)
WRITTEN TH. KIRYGMA
A man, we heard in today's Gospel, a rich man, a ruler, (that is, God himself), was about to go on a long journey. So he called the servants of his house (all the people) and divided his property among them. Not the same share to all, but moved by charity, according to the ability of each one to make use of this property. That is, to work in order to increase it even more. Thus he gave to one man five talents - a gold coin of great weight and value - to another two talents and to another one. He divided it and left for his journey.
A long time passed, and the master of the house finally returned. He then called the servants to give him an account of what they had done with the property he had entrusted to them.
The first came with joy and said to him:
- Lord, you have given me five talents. Look, but five I've earned with my work.
- "Well done, my good and faithful servant," he replied. Take now your reward, many times your labour. Enter into the joy of thy Lord, into the happiness and bliss, into the paradise I have prepared for thee.
The same happened with the second one. He got two, but he won two more, and he got the same reward: heaven!
The third one came:
- Lord, I knew and have always said that you are a cruel man. You reap what you have not reaped and gather what you have not scattered. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the dirt. Here, take it.
-"You cunning and lazy slave," he replied, "so you knew that I was the kind of person you say I am. And why didn't you go to a bank to deposit your talent, so that it could increase its value with interest? Why did you waste it in the dirt? Take it - he addressed others - and give it to the one who has ten. A worthless slave he proved to be, he himself wasted himself, so he owns nothing.
«I have hid thy talent in the earth.».
My Christian brother, notice that with this phrase the wicked servant himself condemned himself. It is as if he said: «For me, life has no value anymore. Everything around me and in me is boring and boring. No appetite for action, for contribution, for joy.».
Did he not see the talent - the gift that God had graciously given him? Did he deal with his neighbor's gifts jealously? Why did he not want to make use of his talent? What prevented him? Was he afraid of losing something? Did he forget he was born naked? Why did he freeze and press his lips to his brother, why did he clench his fist in case he needed help, and why did he brace his legs in case they ran to the need of his fellow man? And what did he accomplish? He was buried with his talent. That is what he finally achieved. What a pity!
But this parable, my dear brethren, shows us two indisputable things:
- First, that we all, without exception, have talents, that is, gifts, and that these were given to us by God.
- And secondly, that they were given to us precisely so that we could use them with zeal and eagerness and willingness, without comparisons and «disassociations».
Surely we know who benefits from this divine cultivation of the gifts. Is it God? No, of course He is everything, He is the Giver. You and I, my brother, are doubly benefited by this exploitation. You and I and our fellow men, in whose faces we see the violet and good face of our Lord. And when the blessed time of each of us comes, which will come, then will the Almighty and Charitable God grant that we too may hear it: «blessed, good and faithful, come into the joy of your Lord». Amen.
Fr. Pavlos Kalliikas
