Prov. 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; Ps. 128:1-5; 1 Thes. 5:1-6; Mt. 25:14-30

Fear of the Lord!  Blessed are those who fear the Lord.   Wisdom is given to them as children of the light.  Fear of the Lord comes from receiving the Lord’s revelation of his truth and responding in love of God to his will.  The Lord’s truth recognizes good and evil, mercy and justice, the blessings of obedience and accounting for sin.  Fear of the Lord is a reality check when we realize our own mortality and God’s divinity, there is a God and we are not him. 

In today’s time the world is filled with people who are led to believe they can be their own god.   They can choose what sex they want to be, what child they want to give birth to or terminate, and what day they want to end their life.  These choices come when there is no fear of the Lord.  They are made in freedom but they do not set you free.  The bondage of these choices come from the consequence of mortal sin against the love and the law of God.  The day will come when faced with the truth of God and the understanding of “what have I done” that the soul can turn to God and his mercy and seek forgiveness but we must humble ourselves before God. 

Fear of the Lord is what unites a worthy wife, brings prosperity to a man, makes for children of the light and comes with greater responsibilities in the kingdom of God.  A worthy wife is the heart of the home in our domestic church who labors for the good of her family.  The church is the worthy spouse of God who labors for the salvation of souls.  The love of a wife is a compass in the mind of a man that brings prosperity to the home and together the children grow in faith, hope, and love.  Together they face life challenges and serve the greater good.  This is the kingdom of God with a call to greater responsibility. 

Now who wants more responsibility?  This is what God is seeking out of his people, to multiply the blessings that come from the call to love and serve the Lord.  When we face a challenge, we can respond with “why me?” or “why not me!”  Those who say “why me” seek to bury their “talent” that is the graces and gifts of the Spirit, and avoid the call from God.  Those who say “why not me” are not fearful of the world but carry the fear of the Lord and courage to say “yes Lord”.

I retired five months ago from a career of 40 years and was looking forward to the idea of “slowing down”.  In the first month there were so many funerals happening that I began to call myself the “deacon of the dead”.  We all like predictability and before I could say my calendar dictated my day.  Now my calendar can be completely open but by the end of the day I am completely tired because saying “yes Lord” is willing to die to oneself one good deed at a time.  The word “retired” implies to become tired all over again.  “Hello” that is not in the human plan for getting old but then God came calling on Abraham at a very old age.  He calls on the young and old alike to serve in God’s time. 

God does not want part of us, he created all of us for himself.  This is where the parable of the “talents” is understood by the works we are too multiple from the gifts we receive.  Here the parable a “talent” is unit of money equivalent to 6,000 denarii with one denarii equivalent to a day’s wages.   In today’s terms that would equal 25 years of income for just one talent.  Ten talents equal 250 years of wages to create from the gifts we receive from God.  None of this is possible from human effort but then nothing is impossible when there is fear of the Lord willing to answer the call.  After all, it is God who works through us. 

God’s wealth is eternal and his gifts for us are to be multiplied to serve eternity.  One good act of service to God for his people can have eternal blessings.  The blessing we serve in one life can lead that one person to be a blessing to many others many times over.  It is the multiplication of the loaves that keeps feeding everyone with plenty left for future generations to come.  We will never know the good one act of charity can have in the transformation of many until we reach the glorified state and all things are revealed to us. 

The parable emphasizes the great value that God is entrusting to us in our life.  That value does not represent the wealth of this world but the importance of God’s gifts to his people.  We are blessed!  A blessing is the power of God and we are to exercise the power of God in our lives.  From our baptism we are given the gifts of the Spirit and the power to reject sin, to make holy, and to bring others into his kingdom.  When we were born, God gives us the gift of ourselves with a free will with his desire that our lives be lived as the gift of ourselves to him.  Let us live the fear of the Lord without fear in our giving of ourselves for his greater glory.  Amen.