November 15, 2026 -33rd Sunday Ordinary Time
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
“Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.” (Matthew 25:21) In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the talents. A master entrusts his servants with different amounts—five, two, and one—according to each one’s ability. Two of them put the money to work and double what they received. The third buries his talent out of fear. When the master returns, he praises the first two and condemns the third for doing nothing with the gift he was given.
The lesson is clear and demanding. Everything we have—our time, abilities, relationships, resources, faith—is a trust from God. These are not ours to bury or hoard. They are meant to be invested, risked, and multiplied for the sake of the Kingdom. The tragedy is not that the third servant failed to produce a great return; it is that he refused to try. Fear of failure, fear of judgment, or simple complacency led him to hide what was never meant to be hidden.
The first reading from Proverbs offers a living example of this faithful investment. The “worthy wife” is praised not for her appearance or charm, but for her industriousness, her care for her household, and her open hands toward the poor. She fears the Lord, and that holy fear becomes the source of her energy and generosity. Her works “praise her at the city gates.” In other words, a life lived in reverent obedience to God naturally bears fruit that others can see and give thanks for.
Saint Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, reminds us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. We do not know the hour. Therefore we are not to live as if we have unlimited time to decide whether we will use our gifts. We are children of the light. We stay awake. We remain sober and ready. The Christian life is not a waiting room; it is an active stewardship of whatever the Master has placed in our hands.
As we approach the end of the liturgical year, the Church places these readings before us as a kind of examination of conscience. What talents has the Lord entrusted to me? How am I using them—or am I burying them? Am I living with the quiet industriousness of the woman in Proverbs, or with the fearful caution of the servant who hid his gift? Do I recognize that remaining in Christ (as the Alleluia verse urges) is the only way any of our efforts will truly bear lasting fruit?
The Master is not harsh. He simply expects us to act. He knows what each of us has been given and judges us only according to our ability. The reward He offers is not merely more responsibility, but a share in His own joy. That is the ultimate purpose of every talent: that we might one day hear those words—“Come, share your master’s joy”—and enter fully into the life for which we were created. May we not bury what God has given. May we invest it freely, trustingly, and with love, so that when He returns, He may find us ready and our hands full of the fruit of faithful labor.
God Bless everyone always!!!
Fr. Stan
