33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Nothing is small in the eyes of God

I was unsure how to start our weekly message this week, but being bored and flipping through some images posted on Instagram I came across a picture of St Thérèse of Lisieux with the phrase: ‘Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love’ That, I thought, was the best summary we can make of the Gospel this Sunday.

What amazes me the most about the Parable of the talents is that it does not matter how many times you read it, you just cannot help thinking the master had been somewhat unfair by giving 5 talents to one of his servants, 2 to the other and only 1 to the third. Perhaps this is due to our postmodern believe in equality, or perhaps Jesus is once more pointing at the same old problem that has accompanied humanity right from the beginning.

In fact, when you turn to the Bible you realise that our bad habit of comparing ourselves with whoever is next to us, has indeed been there right from the beginning. If the first sin of humanity was pride (Adam and Even intended to be like God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree) then the second sin is envy (Cain killed his brother Abel because God had liked his brother’s offering better).

The genius of Jesus and his parable is that if you spot the “injustice” is probably because you suffer from envy and the likelihood is that you will end up like the third servant, losing everything, or almost everything. I know that in the Gospel the third servant excuses himself putting the blame on somebody else: “I had heard you were a hard man”. But I am convinced, that if we could dig deeper into his subconscious, we would find that what stopped him from trading with his one talent was envy. He was paralysed because he kept looking at the others and dwelled in his misfortune of having received only one talent. “If only I had received 5 or as little as 2 talents, I too would have had the courage to trade with them” he must have thought. 

Well, this is then the message of the gospel this Sunday, stop looking at the other’s gifts and put yours to work. Whether you have many gifts or few, whether you have a lot of power and influence or little, put what you have to work. For “remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Just do all that you do with love”.

Fr Daniel Herrero Pena

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News Items:

See the Cardinal's statement on IICSA here. 
We hold all those who have suffered abuse as children or vulnerable adults and those who work for their healing in our prayers. 

Day of prayer to the end of the pandemic: next Saturday, 21 November, is dedicated throughout the Church as a day of prayer for humanity in the struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic. This is taking place in the context of the delayed International Eucharistic Congress. That day our church will be open for private prayer from 10.30 am to 12.30.

Mass times without a congregation:
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Church will be open on Sunday form 10.30 am to 12.30 for personal prayer. 
During the week days Mass is broadcast at 9.30 am and church will be open from 10.00 am onwards.
 
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