This homily is based on Matthew 25:14-30.
Today’s Gospel reading is known as the “Parable of the Talents.” According to its usual interpretation, its moral lesson is: “Don’t just preserve your God-given talents. Develop them!” To that, we can even add that we should also share our talents with others, in contrast to “burying” them and keeping them to ourselves. But what happens if we’ve been developing a talent, and then it turns out we don’t have that talent, after all?
The other evening, I joined a zoom meeting with some friends, and I can’t help connecting today’s parable to the experience of that reunion. During the zoom session I met friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. As we chatted with one another about our lives, we celebrated the successes accomplished and virtually patted one another on the shoulder for the setbacks encountered these past years.