Saturday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time
1 Ths 4:9-11
Mt 25:14-30
…so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground.
I used to pay very little attention to the servant who hid the talent in the ground. In my mind, I saw him as a disappointment. I would even say that I had little or no sympathy towards him. Until some events in my life allowed me to look at the third servant with more compassion.
He said that he was afraid, that’s why he didn’t do anything. Sometimes, people choose not to do something because they are afraid that if they fail, they would end up disappointing the other person. The pain of doing something, not measuring up, and being rejected could be so much. It might even be unbearable that one finds it better not to do anything and be rejected, rather than put in effort and end up being rejected as well. There may be people around us who we have been quick to judge as simply being lazy when in fact, they had deeper issues than laziness.
The next point of reflection is that if the servant was afraid of the master, could it be because he did not know the master enough? Sometimes, I feel that I have to put my best foot forward for God. In fact, I only realized that subconsciously, I was trying to be the perfect daughter for God. There is nothing wrong in wanting to be perfect for God, since we have been told to ‘be perfect just as (our) heavenly Father’ is. What was wrong was that in my quest for perfection, I forgot that God has also chosen to love my failures and shortcomings because they are part of me. Perhaps, I do not really know God enough yet to not be afraid.
My last point of reflection is, whether the third servant ever asked the first two servants for tips on how to grow his talents. Maybe he did, but I feel that most likely he didn’t. If his first reaction was to bury his talent, I would also think that he would be so afraid to have asked for help. In our journey towards God, we certainly need the help of other people so we can become better.
God has put people around us so we can learn from them as to how we can give greater glory to God, how we can serve him better. Sometimes, we just don’t bother asking for help or guidance. Is it our pride? Or is it because we just can’t be bothered to try? Or is it because we are afraid?
Brothers and sisters, let us cease to be afraid. Let us seek to get to know God more, to get to know our selves more, let us be brave enough to ask for help.
Let us have faith in God and his love for us.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Stephanie Villa)
Prayer: Dearest Lord God, please help me acknowledge the third servant in me and help me grow to do what will bring you happiness. And let that happiness be my happiness, too.
Thanksgiving: Thank you, Lord, for including the third servant in the story for me to learn more about myself.
OXYGEN 
Leave a comment