Joke: Two eighty-year-old men had been friends since their Little League baseball days. One of them came down with a terminal illness and his best friend was with him by his deathbed. “Will you do me a favor?” the healthy friend asked. “I’m hoping there is baseball in heaven. When you get there, can you find out and let me know somehow?” The dying man said, “We’ve been friends for almost all of our lives. I will try and get your answer to you.” Several days after the old man’s death, his friend was sleeping when he had a vivid dream. His lifelong friend appeared to him and said, “There is definitely baseball in heaven, my friend! The bad news is that you’re pitching tomorrow.”

Heaven, what does it have? Baseball? Football? Buffet? Restaurants? Favorite pets? Loved pets? Michael Jordan’s shoes? Chanel’s Crocodile Skin Flap Bag? Ferrari car? Or what does it have in heaven? Heaven is a perfect state of being that we are always filled with happiness and peace that we do not need anything and everything. The best part in heaven is everybody is the same. There will be no boss, no manager, no supervisor, no leader, no servant, nor slave, and every one is the same. The question is, how do we get there, heaven? Each one of us is given talent(s) to prepare us to get into heaven. What is your talent? And how do you use your talent(s)?           

In today’s Gospel, Jesus portrays a scene of a man entrusted a treasure, a fund or rather the gifts and talents for his three employees to use their talent(s) to make profit from it when he comes back. The employer in this parable is an Almighty Man, and he knows the ability of each and every one of his employees, so he gives them a fund, each according to his or her own ability to make profit from it. One, out of the three, doesn’t want to use the fund out of his fear that he buries it in the ground that Matthew reports vividly in today’s Gospel, “The man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money.” Why didn’t he just put that money in the bank, but buried it in the ground? What happens in the ground if it’s not filled with darkness and isolation? It is only one way in and no way out. It is a place to hide rather than to expose. It is to isolate from everything else that has life. That talent becomes a death talent.

What is this talent then? Have you and I ever received a talent from the Lord on our spiritual journey here on earth? What is yours? We all receive at least one talent given to us at our own baptism, and that talent we are called to be priest, prophet, and king. The question is what have we done with the talent that we have received at our baptism? What does it mean to be priest, prophet and king from our baptism? To be priest is simply to live a prayer life. To be a prophet simply means to spread the Good News to others in our words and in our actions; and to be a king means to be loyal and truthful to the teaching of the Lord Jesus and the teaching of the Church. We might fulfill all of our obligations—to go to Church every Sunday and holy day of obligation, to say grace before, to go to confession at least once a year, not stealing, killing, nor harming others which are all good. However, have all these good deeds that we’ve done drawn others to the Church? The one receives one talent in today’s Gospel, he hasn’t done anything wrong except to close off himself away from others. He has not killed anyone nor harm any person, but has he helped others using the talent that he is given?

When the man buries his one talent, he isolates himself from all the living creatures. He locks himself in the dark that there is no way to get out. Of course, he is absolutely not the children of Light just as St. Paul said in today’s second reading. He does not hurt anyone when he locks himself in the dark and isolates himself away from others, but what he fails is to trust his boss who has entrusted him and given him the fund to make profit from it. He also fails, not to isolate himself from others, but to use that fund to communicate with others to make profit from that talent. He also fails to believe in his boss who sees his ability and gives him enough according to his ability.

Listen to the one who receives one talent saying in today’s Gospel, “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.” Out of fear that the Pharisees and Scribes and others kept the laws so much so rigid to the point not doing anything on the Sabbath including healing the sick and picking the grain and many other things.

What have we done with our talent, a call to be priest, prophet and king that entrusted to us at our baptism? Have we shared the Word of God with others? Have we lived out our Christian call through our good words and good deeds towards those we come into contact each day? Have we had enough faith and trust in the Lord to continue to trust him in our prayers and in our Christian life when we experience difficulties and challenges of life? Or do we run away to avoid facing the reality when things do not come in the ways we want them to? Trying to avoid challenges, sufferings, difficulties, and many other uncomfortable situations are just like to bury the talent that the Lord entrusted to our care at our baptism so that we can secure our comfort zones, the zones of darkness and isolation. We might not do harm nor hurt to anyone around us, but have we done anything good to help others that we come into contact each day? If we haven’t done anything good to others, including our family members, our loved ones, and our own community, what actions should we take and deliver it into action and not just with our lips service? To avoid doing bad things, harming, or hurting others are good things, but wouldn’t it be better if we could say something good or do something goods to others? It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, as the commercial said. Have we lighted a candle or cursed the darkness in our spiritual journey? The decision is yours.