Faith Calls Us Beyond Fear - Catholic Herald

Lazy and afraid — perhaps not as dire as being “Naked and Afraid,” but apparently not far from it. After all, the servant who chose the path of laziness and fear in Sunday’s Gospel ended up being thrown “into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” (Matthew 25:30)

You might argue that digging a hole to bury approximately 15-20 years’ worth of wages (a general estimate for the value of a Greco-Roman “talent”) is not exactly a lazy thing to do. Putting a million dollars in the ground would take some digging and break a sweat. But the master calls him “oknēros”, a word meaning “shrinking, timid, idle, sluggish.” He is too weak-kneed to act with resolve and so earn a return on his master’s wealth.

What’s sad is that his fear springs from a false perception of his master. I’ve never had a boss entrust me with a million dollars. But this boss generously trusts his servants with five, two and one million dollars, respectively, to care for in his absence. He clearly knows his servants personally, not giving them more than he knows they each can handle. And upon his return, he is filled with gratitude for the good work his men have done, inviting them to share in his joy rather than taking back the earnings for himself.

But the wicked servant is convinced that his master is “a demanding person,” calling him “sklēros,” meaning “hard, austere, harsh, bitter.” It’s where we get our word “sclerosis,” which refers to abnormal hardening of body tissue. In his eyes, his master is a hard-hearted man, “harvesting where [he] did not plant and gathering where [he] did not scatter.” (Matthew 25:24)

While it is true that the master harvests and gathers the returns for which his servants have industriously bartered, all is shared as a mutual gift and cause for mutual joy, not hoarded with the stony, grasping heart of Ebenezer Scrooge. The servant’s prejudice blinds him to these realities.

What ought to have been a joint partnership with a magnanimous patron, an invitation to intimate participation in the work of his domain and the joyful fruit that it bears, becomes instead a cold and clinging grudge against the one extending so generous an offer. “Here, you have what is yours!” he says (Matthew 25:25 ESV), throwing the money back in his master’s generous face, as if to say, “Take it back and … good riddance! I want no part of you or anything that belongs to you. You are an intrusion into my private order, into my comfort, and so I want no part of your life. Go away and leave me alone!” (Leiva-Merikakis, “Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word: Vol. 3,” 823)

That’s a cold, dark place to inhabit, as the parable’s kicker names well. It is a far cry from the spousal image proposed in our first reading this week, from the Book of Proverbs. There we hear of the “worthy wife,” or more literally, “the woman of strength, valor, ability, efficiency.” (Proverbs 31:10, trans. my own) Her husband (yes, the Hebrew makes the link explicit in calling him “lord, master”) entrusts not merely his money to her but his very heart. And she, in turn, is a zealous partner in the joint venture of their household. She “works with joyful, delightful, willing hands.” (Proverbs 31:13, trans. my own) “Her lamp does not go out at night.” (Proverbs 31:18 ESV)

She joins the ranks of wise, valiant women throughout Scripture who get their skin in the game and so become great partners with God in fostering his kingdom and defending his beloved people from their foes. Women such as Rahab who provides shelter to Joshua’s footmen as they scout out the Promised Land, and so secures safety for them and for her own household through her faith in the God of Israel. (cf. Joshua 2) Or Naomi, who boldly maneuvers her daughter-in-law Ruth, also “a woman of worth,” (Ruth 3:11) to press the question of marriage with Boaz and so advance the saving lineage of Christ. (cf. Ruth 3) Or Abigail, who intervenes to dissuade David from seeking revenge against her churlish husband Nabal, so teaching David the path of wisdom as he himself is hunted by King Saul, the anti-Christ. (cf. 1 Samuel 24-26)

Lazy and afraid these women are not. And so, they become great paradigms to us of what it means for the Church to be Christ’s spouse. He seeks a spouse who will serve at his side to cultivate his garden and guard it from the enemy, as Adam and Eve were to till and keep the Garden of Eden (cf. Gen 2:15), not burying treasure but planting seed, and so reaping a return on his investments “with interest” (literally, “offspring”). (Matthew 25:27) “To everyone who has [this wisdom], more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Matthew 25:29)