Gain

Matthew 25:14-30 (Saturday)

“The person who had received five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more.”

Several times Jesus expresses his amazement about what people do to enrich themselves. He calls them children of the darkness, because they misjudge what their lives are about, but he admires their dedication.

He does not admire what they do. He makes it clear that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to combine a mere interest in money with an interest in the reign of God.

We don’t need Jesus to know this. Human history itself witnesses to that difficulty. Hundreds of years ago Bartolomé de las Casas wrote what became a classic about the greed of the Spanish conquerors of Latin America. In it he says: “I am not saying that they are out to murder, but I do say that they want to get rich. They want to swim in gold by the labor of and the sweat of the wretched natives, which they use as if they were tools, with the unavoidable result that they all die in exhaustion and misery.”

The people de Las Casas wrote about were not bad. They were not necessarily aggressive. Maybe they didn’t even want to kill, but they did want to get rich. Their greed blinded them to any reign-of-God value. This kind of attitude is at work all around us. Shops are kept open even at the most impossible hours. Appointment books are overbooked. The deadliest deals are made. Wars are waged. Health, honor, integrity, and leisure are sacrificed to make more money. Jesus must be again amazed.

Jesus says: “If only the children of the light would be as eager to establish the reign of God as the children of the darkness are eager to get rich.”

(From the CD material, Entering the Lectionary)