"A Great Cloud of Witnesses"

  

 “Out of fear I went out and hid your gold in the ground.”

(Mt. 25:25)

“A Great Cloud of Witnesses”

(Heb 12:1)

November 13, 2011, 33^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31    Thess. 5:1-6    Matthew 25:14-30

First reading from Proverbs

A good wife is hard to find, and she’s worth more than a whole string of pearls. Her husband puts his confidence in her, and knows he’ll never be poor. She does him only good and never any harm.  She buys wool and flax and works with loving hands. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her fingers ply the spindle. She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy. Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Reward her labors, and may her works praise her at the city gates.

The word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Glory to you, Lord.

The Parable of the Bags of Gold

Again the kingdom of Heaven can be likened to a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.  To one he gave five bags of gold[1], to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.  The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.  So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I’ve gained five more.” His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” The man with two bags of gold also came. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with two bags of gold. See, I’ve gained two more.” His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

Then the man who had received one bag[2] of gold came.”‘Master,” he said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So out of fear I went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.” His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?  Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.  So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For the man who uses well what he is given shall be given more, and he shall have abundance. But from the man who is unfaithful even the little that he has shall be taken from him.  And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The Gospel of the Lord

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction

A momentary lull

Here we are in the middle of November. It's a momentaryt lull before a very busy calendar: Thanksgiving on the 24th, the feast of Blessed Pope John XXIII on the 25th, and the beginning of Advent on the 27th in preparation for Christmas 2011. It's that time of "the rolling years."

A mutilated 1^st reading

In the first reading from Proverbs 31 a man has made `a great catch’ in the wife he married.  She’s worth more to him than a whole string of pearls. She brings him only good and no evil.  She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands. She plies her fingers at the spindle and reaches out her hands to the poor and needy. What a lucky man he is to have married such a veritable domestic diva!

The first reading from Proverbs, however, sells the good woman quite short. That reading has been mutilated by an editor who has chosen (purposely?) some verses and left out others. Behold how mutilated the first reading is: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31).  Hmmm! We wonder about the editor’s motives as he picked some verses and omitted others. Did some fear, at least subliminal, guide his picking and choosing? Here are the verses he left out:

Vs 14: “ Like merchant ships, the wife secures her provisions from afar.” Vs. 15: “She gets up while it is still dark, giving her household their food, giving orders to her serving girls.” Vs. 16: ”She picks out a field to purchase; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.” Vs. 18: ”She knows the value of everything she makes and works late into the night.” Vs. 22:  “She makes her own bedspreads and wears clothes of fine purple linen.” Vs. 24: “She makes garments and sells them, and stocks the merchants with belts.” Vs. 25:  “She is strong and respected, and she can laugh at the days to come.” And vs. 26: “She opens her mouth wisely, and on her tongue is kindly instruction.” 

The passage, when not mutilated, tells why this wife is, indeed, such `a great catch.’ She is not only a domestic diva but also a wonderful enterprising spirit with great managerial skills. That full thought fits well with the Parable of the Bags of Gold: the master was pleased with the enterprising spirit of the two servants who invested his gold and doubled it for him, but he was displeased with the fearful servant who played it safe and buried his master’s gold.

A parable about fear

The focus of the parable about the bags of gold is not on the two servants who invested their master’s gold, but on the one who out of fear did not invest it, but went instead and buried it in the ground. The key to the parable is “out of fear.” “Out of fear I went out and hid your gold in the ground.” It is a parable about always playing it safe and never taking a reasonable risk. It’s a parable about fear, and what happens when we let it take over.

Fear has many faces. Out of fear of the Jewish aauthorities the early disciples were gathered together behind locked doors. (JN 20:19) Out of an irrational fear of Jews, the Nazis went rampaging throughout all of Germany on November 9, 1938 (73 years ago last Wednesday), and in one night destroyed 7000 Jewish businesses, and burned down 191 synagogues. In today's parable, out of fear a servant has buried his master's money instead of investing it. And in today's first reading a male editor of Proverbs, out of some fear (it would be interesting to name it) has chosen to pick and choose, and paint a picture of a 'domestic diva,' instead of a woman with a great enterprising spirit and managerial skills - a woman whom you could easily imagine as being ordained a priest and leading a congregation of the faithful.

An invitation to the Church to not fear and play it safe

The parable invites us as individuals to not play it safe and bury our bag of gold, but to be adventurous, take reasonable risks and invest it. But to what does the parable invite us as Church? Matthew, after all, wasn’t speaking to a group of individuals at a workshop on personal growth; he was addressing a young Church. He was inviting a young Church to put away its fear and not play it safe. If she plays it safe, she will not only not double her Lord’s gift but will also lose it. Matthew was inviting the Church of every age to not fear and play it safe.

Men of the Church who did not fear and play it safe

And there have always been men of the Church who did not fear and play it safe. Former Archbishop of Seattle, Raymond Hunthausen (b.1921) was a great advocate for the poor and the marginalized. He spoke out courageously about controversial issues in the Church, like artificial contraception and homosexuality. He permitted a homosexual group called Dignity to hold its own Mass in his cathedral. “They're Catholics too,” he explained. "They need a place to pray.” Hunthausen obviously chose not to fear and play it safe; some parishioners in Seattle managed to have Rome strip him of some of his episcopal authority, “because his lack of clarity about certain issues has confused the faithful.”

The year 1993 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae vitae (1968) reaffirming the Church's stand against artificial birth control. Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw, Michigan (1937- 2004) courageously took the occasion to invite the Church to a new and open discussion on birth control. Untener obviously chose not to fear and play it safe; his `audacious’ invitation to reopen the issue of birth control was soundly rejected by the Vatican, and Untener died a simple Bishop and not an Archbishop or a Cardinal of the Church.

Bishop Thomas John Gumbleton (b. 1930) of the Archdiocese of Detroit openly claimed that many bishops don’t believe that every contraceptive act is intrinsically evil, but they aren’t willing to say it publicly.[3] And though Pope John Paul II took a definitive stand against the ordination of women, Gumbleton predicted that “Priestesses will inevitably come.” He pointed out that “Already, female parochial administrators are proving their competency and laying the groundwork for the ordination of women,” Gumbleton obviously chose not to fear and play it safe; when he petitioned Rome for permission to stay on as bishop beyond his 75^th year, (the canonical age for retirement) though still in good health, his petition was refused with e-mail speed!

A Pope who chose not to fear and play it safe

Out of fear of the Protestant Revolution of the 16^th century, the Church summoned the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Out of fear, Trent put the teachings of faith safely into deep freeze and locked them all up in prisons of certainty. (That’s not so much a criticism as it is a simple statement of the `Law of Action and Reaction.’) The fear-founded certainty of Trent lasted for four hundred years, and many of us were raised on it. But fear, four hundred years old, was bound to lose its edge and die of old age.

Much of fear’s edge had already been lost by the time the Patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected pope in 1958, following the death of Pope Pius XII. Roncalli’s election to the papacy surprised the man himself, for he had arrived in the Vatican for the papal election with a return train ticket to Venice! The new pope was 77 years old when elected, and it was widely assumed that he would play it safe - that he would be an interim caretaker pope who would maintain the status quo, listen to the advisers around him, and not rock the Boat of Peter. It was assumed that the old man would not disturb the `peace’ of the Church (which was not really the `kiss of peace’). The old man surprised everyone when he chose not to fear and play it safe, but chose instead to courageously summon  his Church to the Second Vatican Council.

Conclusion

A great cloud of witnesses

Out of some subliminal fear the pick-and-choosing editor of the first reading from Proverb chose to hide the enterprising spirit and great managerial skills of that `good wife’ and `great catch.’ Out of a fear of his hard master (who harvests where he has not sown and gathers where he has not scattered seed) the servant chose to hide his one bag of gold. On the other hand, great church men like Hunthausen, Untener, Gumbleton and Good Pope John chose not to fear and play it safe. What Australian writer Morris West (1916-1999)[4] wrote of Good Pope John in A View from the Ridge he would have written of all these great church men who chose not to fear and play it safe.

I believe I can say with certainty that I remained in communion with the Church even when the Church itself excluded me[5], and I remain there still, principally because of the presence of John XXIII, the Good Pastor, whom I never met, though I did meet his predecessor and his successor. Goodness went out from this man to me. I acknowledged it then. I acknowledge it again.

Many feel the same as Morris West did. Many joyfully and hopefully remain in the Church because of a great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1) who did not fear and play it safe – witnesses like Hunthausen, Untener, Gumbleton and Good Pope John.

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[1] The New English Bible translation speaks of “bags of gold” in the place of “talents” used by  many other translations.

[2] In today’s computation the 5 bags of gold would be 6.8 million dollars. The 2 bags of gold would be 2.7 million dollars. And the 1 bag of gold would be 1.35 million dollars, and that too is by no means a small amount. 

[3] America magazine (Nov. 20, 1963)

[4] West is best known for  his books The Devil’s Advocate and The Shoes of the Fisherman

[5] Though West was and always remained a Catholic, his various writings contain a good deal of criticism about the church, and the church was not always pleased with him.