With Empty Hands: The Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time 2020

                                                            With Empty Hands

The Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time 2020

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November 15, 2020

Proverbs 31:10-31; Psalm 128; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30

 

 

Almost universally, people can recognize the foolishness of hiding one’s talents and not investing them wisely. The parable has a deeper meaning though because Jesus is calling out the Pharisees and scribes as the person in the story who hid his talent in the ground. Jesus faults them for wanting to maintain the status quo and not moving forward. They planned to keep life as they knew it just as they were and to build a wall around the law so that it remains preserved unchanged. They wanted to protect their prestige and authority and their places of honor. Jesus presented them with new ideas about God and the law and how humans ought to live faithfully, and the Pharisees and the Scribes did not want to receive or understand this new reality, so they planned to kill Jesus. 

 

The point to the Gospel is that we cannot stand still. We cannot simply yearn for the olden days and despair over the present days. We cannot lament how we think society might move into new categories of understanding. We have to move forward and show a steady development in our faith, which is always changing. Faith never stands still; teachings continuously evolve. We cannot conserve and preserve teachings just because they exist; we must adapt them for the times for if we are not moving ahead on the road of life, then we are going backwards. We cannot stand still. Each day we are to advance, learn something new, do something little better. 

 

Aligned with this is our duty to inform our conscience. If we have only a little knowledge and make no attempt to learn more, then we will lose what we have. We have to keep reading from various sources, ask questions, bring our ponderings to prayer, and speak with respected and knowledgeable people who are experienced in wrestling with moral issues. Our faith-security and status quo can feel unstable, and we question whether we know what our faith teaches, but this type of stress is good for us because we know we are growing, we are wrestling, we are trying to appropriate an answer that is meaningful and makes sense even if we cannot explain it. We are a people on the way – and that is good enough. Our illusions of comfort and security and certainty are gone, but we will build more mature understandings. We seek wisdom and greater compassion and we know that it is quite okay to be confused – as long as we stay moving forward on the road. We will meet fellow sojourners and pilgrims who will carry us along the road, and we will come to know their holiness and righteousness, and we will come to honor our own.

 

The main point of the story is Jesus is upset with the person who did not even bother to try. As we see in the story, gifts and talents are not distributed equally and the dividends will always be unequal, but the tragedy is that the person does not engage, does not even strive, just doesn’t give the effort. That’s where sadness sets in. This is what we call sin – failing to even bother. The Pharisees and Scribes did not bother to try or they became scared because they could not manage the outcomes. We are people who take the risk of moving into discomfort until something within us clicks and we come to know the deeper meaning of an event that once caused us alarm. The sin isn’t that we did not arrive at a certain answer; the sin is that we did not even bother to try. We have to be defined as people who tries, and when we repeatedly fail or get assaulted by the many voices and forces around us, we get up again and try once more. We must always try.

 

The ones who tried in the parable received so much more than they anticipated, and it brought about their gladness. They pleased their master, which was victory unto itself. We have to be the ones, who at the end of our lives, appear with empty hands before God, and we say, “I have invested all you have given me. I have nothing more to give. I have used your gifts well.” Those empty arms will then wrap around God who will receive us in great joy. Well done, my faithful servant. Look at everything I have to give you. It’s all yours to enjoy.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading:

Monday: (Proverbs 31) When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.

 

Tuesday: (Revelation 1) The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him,
to show his servants what must happen soon. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who gives witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ by reporting what he saw.

 

Wednesday: (Revelation 3) The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this: “I know your works, that you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

 

Thursday: (Revelation 4) I, John, had a vision of an open door to heaven, and I heard the trumpetlike voice that had spoken to me before, saying, “Come up here and I will show you what must happen afterwards.” At once I was caught up in spirit.

 

Friday (Revelation 5) I, John, saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a mighty angel who proclaimed in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

 

Saturday (Revelation 10) I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me. Then the voice spoke to me and said: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 25) A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

 

Tuesday: (Luke 18) As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”

 

Wednesday (Luke 19) At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was.

 

Thursday (Luke 19) While people were listening to Jesus speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God
would appear there immediately.

 

Friday (Luke 19) As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you.

 

Saturday (Luke 19) Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” 

 

Saints of the Week

 

November 14: Joseph Pignatelli, S.J., religious and Superior General (1737-1811) was born in Zaragosa, Spain and entered the Jesuits during a turbulent era. He was known as the unofficial leader of the Jesuits in Sardinia when the Order was suppressed and placed in exile. He worked with European leaders to continue an underground existence and he was appointed Novice Master under Catherine the Great, who allowed the Society to receive new recruits. He secured the restoration of the Society partly in 1803 and fully in 1811 and bridged a link between the two eras of the Society. He oversaw a temperate reform of the Order that assured their survival.

 

November 15: Albert the Great, bishop and doctor (1200-1280), joined the Dominicans to teach theology in Germany and Paris. Thomas Aquinas was his student. With his reluctance, he was made bishop of Ratisbon. He resigned after four years so he could teach again. His intellectual pursuits included philosophy, natural science, theology, and Arabic language and culture. He applied Aristotle's philosophy to theology.

 

November 16: Roch Gonzalez, John del Castillo, and Alphonsus Rodriguez, S.J. (1576-1628) were Jesuit priests born to Paraguayan nobility who were architects of the Paraguayan reductions, societies of immigrants based on religious faith. They taught the indigenous population how to plant farms and other basic life skills that would protect them from the insidious slave trades of Spain and Portugal. By the time the Jesuits were expelled, 57 such settlements were established. Roch was a staunch opponent of the slave trade. He, John, and Alphonsus were killed when the envy of a local witch doctor lost his authority at the expense of their growing medical expertise.  

 

November 16: Margaret of Scotland (1046-1093) was raised in Hungary because the Danes invaded England. She returned after the Norman Conquest in 1066 and sought refuge in Scotland. She married the king and bore him eight children. She corrected many wayward abuses within the church and clarified church practices. 

 

November 16: Gertrude the Great (1256-1302) was placed for childrearing into a Benedictine monastery at age 5 in Saxony. She lived with two mystics named Mechthild and as she developed her intellectual and spiritual gifts, she too became a mystic. Her spiritual instructions are collected into five volumes. She wrote prayers as a first advocate of the Sacred Heart.

 

November 17: Elizabeth of Hungary, (1207-1231) was the daughter of Andrew II, king of Hungary. She married Ludwig IV of Thuringia and as queen supported many charities. When her husband died in a crusade in 1227, she entered the Third Order of Franciscans. 

 

November 18: The Dedication of the Basilicas of Peter and Paul celebrates churches in honor of the two great church founders. St. Peter's basilica was begun in 323 by Emperor Constantine - directly over Peter's tomb. A new basilica was begun in 1506 and it was completed in 1626. Many great artists and architects had a hand in building it. St. Paul Outside the Walls was built in the 4th century over Paul's tomb. It was destroyed by fire in 1823 and subsequently rebuilt.

 

November 18: Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852) joined the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and at age 49, traveled to Missouri to set up a missionary center and the first free school west of the Mississippi. She then founded six more missions. She worked to better the lives of the Native Americans.

 

November 21: The Presentation of Mary originated as a feast in 543 when the basilica of St. Mary's the New in Jerusalem was dedicated. The day commemorate the event when Mary's parent brought her to the Temple to dedicate her to God. The Roman church began to celebrate this feast in 1585.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• Nov 15, 1628. The deaths of St Roch Gonzalez and Fr. Alphonsus Rodriguez. They were some of the architects of the Jesuit missions in Uruguay and Paraguay. 
• Nov 16, 1989. In El Salvador, the murder of six Jesuits connected with the University of Central America together with two of their lay colleagues. 
• Nov 17, 1579. Bl Rudolph Acquaviva and two other Jesuits set out from Goa for Surat and Fattiphur, the Court of Akbar, the Great Mogul. 
• Nov 18, 1538. Pope Paul III caused the governor of Rome to publish the verdict proclaiming the complete innocence of Ignatius and his companions of all heresy. 
• Nov 19, 1526. The Inquisition in Alcala, Spain examined Ignatius. They were concerned with the novelty of his way of life and his teaching. 
• Nov 20, 1864. In St Peter's, Rome, the beatification of Peter Canisius by Pope Pius IX. 
• Nov 21, 1759. At Livorno, the harbor officials refused to let the ship, S Bonaventura, with 120 exiled Portuguese Jesuits on board, cast anchor. Carvalho sent orders to the Governor of Rio de Janeiro to make a diligent search for the supposed wealth of the Jesuits.