The True Weight of a Talent is the Cross

Matthew 25:1-13 “To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one– to each according to his ability. Then he went away.”

Who would like to have received the five talents from the master? Now I can imagine there would be more people who would like to have received the five talents rather than the meagre one.

Second question. Who here would like to have more hardships in their life, more struggles and difficulties, to carry a bigger cross? I doubt there are many people who would ask for more difficulties. In fact I imagine people would want to have an easier life with less difficulties.

Before we can answer the first question about the talents we should ask first: “what is a talent?” If you are picturing a lode of money you would not be wrong.

A talent is equivalent to 6,000 days salary.

If you work a 6 day week that is about 20 years of wages. So five talents would be equivalent to about 100 years of work. Imagine what you can do with that?

A talent is a block of gold or silver with a handle on top to ease transport.

A talent weighs from 26-34kg (57-75lbs). Imagine carrying 5 of those home, maybe carrying down a few stairs and along some rough roads, 130-170kg (285-375lbs)

Now I am sure you can imagine where we are going with this. With more talents implies more hardship and work of carrying those talents. Try to carry away your talents and you will realise that it is your Cross you are carrying. The weight of your personal cross is the weight of the blessings God has entrusted to you to be fruitful with. All that we have been given is not for our entertainment or for us to grow proud and vain, it has been given to us that we may glorify God and use it for good.

It might happen that in life we may ask God why He did not make us smarter, more talented, more beautiful, stronger or better in general. When these thoughts come we should ask ourselves if we are willing to face greater difficulties and suffer more for Christ. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” Lk 12:48.

Whether God has given you much or little we must use it to glorify God and for the good. This Gospel passage tells us of a servant who did nothing with what he was given, “throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” Pope Benedict also reminds us of this: “The ways of the Lord are not comfortable, but we were not created for comfort, but for great things, for goodness.” (Benedict XVI to the German pilgrims who had come to Rome for the inauguration ceremony of the pontificate)

But why didn’t God just give us all five talents? Our Lord appeared to St Catherine of Siena and explained this.

I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others.… I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one.… And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practise charity towards one another.… I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me. St. Catherine of Siena, Dial. (look up CCC 1937)

And so we are to support each other.

We might think that God has given little compared to others. A point that is truer to fact is that we often do not recognise the talents we have received because we pay too much attention to “worldly talents”, the things which get you only worldly recognition but nothing before God, for example a beautiful singing voice or great handy skills or amazing leadership skills, ect. Some people have been blessed with more wonderful spiritual gifts and virtues than a singing voice. Some people are blessed with a wonderful spiritual life, with the gift of sublime prayer, a gift of deep understanding of the mysteries of God or a gift to perceive God's presence and greatness, a gift of great love and trust in God, etc. But maybe these talents have been buried due to neglect and the passage of time.

God has blessed you all. Make sure you use His blessings for good. And if you have forgotten about some talents which God has blessed you with, maybe they are buried somewhere in your past or somewhere in your heart, you should dig it up and make use of it. God created you that you may share in His glory so make sure to glorify Him here on earth so that when He returns we that He welcomes us into His Joy and not cast into the outer darkness.

We ask the Blessed Virgin Mary in this Mass to pray for us and to help us be like the faithful servants and profit from the wonderful gifts God gives us.