Engage in trade with these

Gospel of the Day (Luke 19:11-28)

While they were listening to him speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God would appear there immediately.

So he said, "A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.

He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, 'Engage in trade with these until I return.'

His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, 'We do not want this man to be our king.'

But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading.

The first came forward and said, 'Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.'

He replied, 'Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.'

Then the second came and reported, 'Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.'

And to this servant too he said, 'You, take charge of five cities.'

Then the other servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding person; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.'

He said to him, 'With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding person, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant; why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.'

And to those standing by he said, 'Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.'

But they said to him, 'Sir, he has ten gold coins.'

'I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.'"

After he had said this, he proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.

***

Reflections:

'Engage in trade with these'

Sweat and toil, which work necessarily involves in the present condition of the human race, present the Christian and everyone who is called to follow Christ with the possibility of sharing lovingly in the work that Christ came to do. This work of salvation came about through suffering and death on a Cross. By enduring the toil of work in union with Christ crucified for us, man in a way collaborates with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity. He shows himself a true disciple of Christ by carrying the cross in his turn every day in the activity that he is called upon to perform.

Christ, "undergoing death itself for all of us sinners, taught us by example that we too must shoulder that cross which the world and the flesh inflict upon those who pursue peace and justice"; but also, at the same time, "appointed Lord by his Resurrection and given all authority in heaven and on earth, Christ is now at work in people's hearts through the power of his Spirit... He animates, purifies, and strengthens those noble longings too, by which the human family strives to make its life more human and to render the whole earth submissive to this goal" (Vatican II, GS 38).

The Christian finds in human work a small part of the Cross of Christ and accepts it in the same spirit of redemption in which Christ accepted his Cross for us. In work, thanks to the light that penetrates us from the Resurrection of Christ, we always find a glimmer of new life, of the new good, as if it were an announcement of "the new heavens and the new earth" (Rev 21,1) in which man and the world participate precisely through the toil that goes with work.