Sts Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Institute
29 Sep 09: Homily on the 16th Sunday after Pentecost
16th Sunday after Pentecost – Parable about the Talents
Homily From “The One Thing Needful,” Sermons of Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)
“We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye accept not the grace of God in vain. (For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation)” (II Cor. 6:1-2).
So says the Apostle this day. And the Gospel tells us that a lord gave talents to his servants: “Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every one according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey…. After a long time the lord of those ser-vants cometh, and reckoneth with them” (Mt. 25:14-19).
So says the parable. How does it apply to us? To us the Lord has also given talents. And essentially the talent is one. What is it? This is what it is. As we heard last Sunday, the entire law and the prophets are concentrated into one commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind….[and] Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Mt. 22:37, 39). God came to earth in order to fulfill this commandment. And He fulfilled it in His whole evangelistic life and taught us how to fulfill it. But above all — in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in receiving His Body and Blood — He gave us the strength to fulfill this commandment. This is what talent means. The talent is the strength given to us by Christ in His Holy Sacrament to fulfill the main commandment of God: love for God and neighbor.
See what a great gift is hidden in this talent given to us by God. In the parable, one servant buried his talent, but all the other servants applied it to their life. This is what depends on us: whether to bury the God-given talent or to apply it to life. The sacrifice of Golgotha was offered once and forever, for the whole world. It depends on us to accept it or to reject it. And to accept it means to live according to the Gospel. According to the words of the parable, this would be to “trade” with our talent and acquire for it that which God gives. And then, when the day of reckoning comes, God will say: “Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Mt. 25:23).
Not to accept the sacrifice of Golgotha, to reject this Tree of Life of the New Testament, and as the Gospel says, to bury the talent in the ground — this means to tell the Lord: I do not want it; “There thou hast that is thine” (Mt. 25:25). Then the Lord will also say to us, “Thou wicked and slothful servant…” and will tell His attendants: Cast him into the outer darkness. “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 25:26-30).
Brothers and sisters! The Lord has done everything for us, has given to each of us a talent. The choice is ours. Let us choose “the good part” (Lk. 10:42). Then we too will exclaim with the Apostle: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!”