Thessalonians 4:9-11
Matthew 25:14-30
In today’s first reading, St. Paul complimented the Thessalonian Christian community on their oneness in love. He urged them to continue to develop their love for others because they have been loved by God. He also reminds them that he taught them to live in such a way that others would see Christianity in action and so come to believe in Christ. Thus,
that love between individuals—friendship, marital love, and parental love are important types of love but must be rooted in Christ’s love and sacrifice.
In today’s parable of talents,
We are reminded that we all have talents but that we will not fully realize those gifts unless we try our best to nurture them. We must use our gifts to the best of our ability for the sake of the kingdom. Just as the man in the parable entrusted his servants with sums of money, God has entrusted us humans since the Garden of Eden with caring for and protecting the source of all our sustenance, the Earth.
All year round, every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake his mercy waits upon us. The sun may leave us a legacy of darkness, but our God never ceases to shine upon his children with beams of love both night and day. Like a river, his loving kindness is always flowing, with a fulness inexhaustible as his nature.
Like the atmosphere which constantly surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the benevolence of God surrounds all his creatures; in it, as in their element, they live, and move, and have their being. Then let us praise him from our hearts with our lips, laud and magnify his name from for whose bounty all this goodness flows. Let us glorify God by yielding our gifts to his cause.
Fr Joseph Osho
