We have come down to the end of the Liturgical Year, in these last two weeks of Ordinary Time, and then we begin a whole new season in Advent. Every year, during this end of the liturgical cycle, we are given readings which invite us to reflect on the “four last things”: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.
Certainly it is not common, nor is it easy, to reflect on these last things. Thankfully, the way the readings are organized can always be helpful. You may or may not know, but the First Reading is always chosen to “harmonize” with the Gospel for all the weeks or Ordinary Time; it often provides an interpretive key for understanding the Gospel or at least helps to shed some light upon it. The second reading could fit those other two readings, but it does not always happen that way. This week, St. Paul is writing about the “Day of the Lord,” or the last judgment, which is exactly what the Gospel is drawing our attention to.
But what about our first reading, from the Book of Proverbs? It seems to be just a simple and inspirational treatise on marriage. It talks about the faithful wife and what a treasure she is. That does not sound very apocalyptic at all. The key to its “harmony” with the Gospel, however, is found in the second sentence of that reading:
When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize.
—Proverbs 31:10-11
It is immediately after that verse—this entrustment of the heart—that we hear of this beautiful, holy wife, who places great care in pouring out her loving concern for her husband and home. More than that, she also “reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy” (Proverbs 31:19-20). There is something very feminine, receptive and giving about the way she responds to this husband who entrusts his heart to her.
In 1988, St. John Paul II wrote an Apostolic Letter to women called Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women). In that letter he writes about what he calls the “feminine genius,” that remarkable ability that women have to receive and to be attentive to love, and how they offer that love to the world. The Blessed Mother is an exemplar, in the way she receives the Savior of the world and then offers Him freely as a true mother. “The moral and spiritual strength of a woman,” writes St. John Paul II, “is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way.”
The context he talks about is the progress of science and technology, and how that has led to material well-bering for some but has also placed a divide on the many, the needy. He says that as a result there exists a great insensitivity to humanity, people left out on the margins that no one is caring for. Women, he says, have a particular ability to respond to that reality because they are first in the order of love (see Mulieris Dignitatem, #30). Is this not the same thing Pope Francis has been saying for his entire papacy, this need to care for the needy and those on the peripheries?
In Proverbs, from the entrustment of the heart the faithful wife is receptive, active, and free to offer that love to the world around her. But here is the connection with our Gospel. In that parable Jesus says, “A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them” (Matthew 25:14).
Of course, we know that the “man” is God, and He did not simply entrust His possessions with them. Like the husband in Proverbs, He entrusted them with His heart! He gave each of them His heart, and in a different measure for each one (five talents, two talents and one talent). He knew them. He loved them. What He wanted was the response of the bride in the Book of Proverbs; He wanted them to respond, love for love. God is not a businessman in charge of possessions. He is love straight through, and He simply wants us to become more like Him.
Clearly, the servant with one talent does not see this. He says, “Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter” (Matthew 25:24). Is that true? Is that what God is like? No! But this man thought so, and he acted not out of faith but out of fear. He went off and buried what was entrusted to him in the ground. His judgment is a harsh and surprising one.
St. Paul writes about the surprising day of the Lord, that it will come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2):
When people are saying, ‘Peace and security,’ then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
—1 Thessalonians 5:3
What a terrifying reality! But then St. Paul goes on to clarify, “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). We are the Bride of Christ! We have received love and we live now in the light, giving love for love. That is what happens in the Gospel for those two other servants. We are told that they responded, they received well what was given to them and multiplied it. Their reward? “Come, share your master’s joy.” That is what God wants for each and every one of us, to share in joy with Him forever. We accomplish that by receiving the love He gives us, by receiving His heart, and responding.
Today we celebrate the World Day of the Poor. Pope Francis reminds us of how attentive we must be to the poor, and how Christ identifies Himself directly with them (Matthew 25:40). There are so many that are poor among us, those who find themselves in need. There are also many who may be materially self-sufficient but suffer from other forms of poverty, as well. There is so much suffering in the world we live in today. We pray for the grace to be attentive to the many women God has placed in our lives, who teach us about the order of love and help us to understand what it means to respond to the entrustment of the heart. God has entrusted each of us with His heart in the life and love we have in Christ. May we return that gift, love for love, in all we say and do.
