33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Proverbs 31:10-13,19-20,30-31; Psalm 128; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30
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Today in the gospel from Matthew we hear the last of Jesus’ parables about the kingdom. For us moderns, this parable on its face is quite off-putting. It seems to espouse and reward rather capitalist ambitions and risk taking, and to decry and punish those who are cautious with property belonging to others. Jesus tells us about a wealthy gentleman going on a long journey. He entrusts different amounts of his money to three of his servants. The two servants who receive most set about investing the money and doubling the amount – presumably at quite some risk. The third who receives least takes no risks at all.
When the master returns, the first two servants are rewarded for their entrepreneurship. They are told they can keep all the money they have. The third servant tells the master: ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’ The master goes berserk at this ‘wicked, lazy servant’, retrieves the money, and orders his other servants to ‘throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ It would seem that this third servant was well justified in being afraid of his master. This servant did nothing evil. He was just excessively cautious.
Scripture scholar Brendan Byrne gives us an insight into how such a graphic contrast of the treatment of the three servants can give us an understanding of how to enter the kingdom. Some of us are like the ever cautious third servant. Being afraid, we think we ‘can get by simply by avoiding wrongdoing and giving back to God what we have received on a basis of strict justice’. Those of us who are like the first two adventurous servants ‘appreciate God as Jesus reveals God to be’, having ‘the freedom to live in the creative and adventurous way that is truly appropriate’. We seek ‘to carry out “what God wants”: an enterprising, even risk-taking practice of “the weightier matters of the Torah: justice, mercy and faith”.’ We ‘stand to receive at the judgement the invitation “Enter into the joy of your master”.’
Australian author Tim Winton has just published a book of autobiographical essays entitled Songs from the Firefront. He writes:
‘Sometimes it’s enough to be reminded that the world can still defy your expectations. A world that can still surprise us is a place we should be alert to. I can accept what’s likely. But I need to look for what’s possible. Moments that sabotage our certainties are precious. Every ugly thing in us can be ambushed and unsettled – by life, by art, by happenstance and by hard work. In art, as in life, the element of surprise is vital. Change depends upon it. But to feel that surprise, or deliver one in return, you can’t hide at home in comfort and safety. You need to spend time in no man’s land.’
In life, we need to step out. We need to take risks, if we are to set out on the path to the kingdom. Pope Leo has spent the week in Argentina and Peru. He delivered a splendid address to priests and religious in Argentina. He urged them to ‘tend to the fire that once kindled (their) vocation and not allow the pressures of daily life, weariness or routine eventually to extinguish it.’ What he said is relevant to all of us, and not just priests and religious.
Having been 12 years the international head of the Augustinians, Leo would have heard his share of stories of those who start to run out of puff or who get set in their ways, not being available to take the risks. Having been free to go to Peru when asked, both as a religious and then as a bishop, Leo was well placed to put this challenge:
‘At the start of our vocation, we tend to offer everything. Then the years go by, and our own preferences set in. We find the places where we feel comfortable and we adopt a certain idea of how our own story should unfold. Can the Lord still send us where we had not planned to go? Can he ask us to leave behind something to which we have devoted years, or to accept a task we would never have chosen?’
He urged the priests and religious of Argentina: ‘Dream of a Church that continues to make noise, just as your fellow countryman Francis asked you to! A noise that brings the Church into every corner and makes the Gospel of Jesus Christ resound everywhere.’
While Leo was in Argentina, Cardinal Mario Grech was here in Australia. Grech is the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops. He played a key role in Pope Francis’s Synod on Synodality.
While here he praised Australia’s Plenary Council which concluded in July 2022. Our Plenary Council passed 10 decrees which are still awaiting Vatican approval after more than four years. The delay is a bureaucratic disgrace.
When asked about the decrees of our plenary council, Cardinal Grech said he shared concerns about the time being taken for their recognition. But he offered the consolation that our experience of a plenary council was already attracting interest from local churches overseas. He said, ‘There are many who are asking how the Australians managed to celebrate the Plenary Council. There are already fruits, although you have not received the reply from Rome. It is already a landmark for the whole church.’
With all respect to Cardinal Grech, his remarks and the Vatican’s bureaucratic delay in approving or disapproving our plenary council decrees is more like the response of the third servant in today’s parable. It’s time for us to become more like the first two servants. It’s time to make some noise. It’s past time for hiding at home in comfort and safety. It’s time for the Australian church to spend time in no man’s land, risking upset with the Vatican officials.
Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the Lord,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favoured.
Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the person blessed
who fears the Lord
The Lord bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
In the week ahead, let’s remember novelist Tim Winton’s words: ‘A world that can still surprise us is a place we should be alert to.’ ‘Moments that sabotage our certainties are precious.’ It’s the world of surprises and the moments of uncertainty that point the way to the kingdom to come. Don’t let the pressures of daily life, weariness or routine put us off the path of adventure. ‘Can the Lord still send us where we had not planned to go? Can he ask us to leave behind something to which we have devoted years, or to accept a task we would never have chosen?’
Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO, Adjunct Professor of Thomas More Law School at ACU and Adjunct Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, is a former Rector of Newman College, University of Melbourne, and CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA). His latest books include Pope Francis: the Disruptive Pilgrims Guide (ATF Theology, 2025), and Equality, Reconciliation and Social Cohesion: The Inspiration of Sir William Deane (Connor Court, 2026).
