33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – 19th November 2023
We all love getting a nicely wrapped gift whether it is for our birthday
or at Christmas. We open and unwarp the gift that has been kindly given
to us. We thank the person who gave us the gift and we use it. Think how
the person who gave us the gift would feel if we didn’t open it; instead,
we simply put it away and left it unopened. This is the situation that we
are presented with this Sunday.
As it was with last Sunday, the gospel this Sunday puts before us again
the message of waiting and asks how we are waiting. A rich man, before
he leaves for a business trip, calls three of his servants and gives them
each a sum of money. He gives them money according to the ability he
sees in each of them. He simply gives them the money; he doesn’t tell
them what to do with it or how to invest it. He trusts them enough to let
them decide how best to use what they have been given. The first two
servants invest their money and so double the amount given. The third
servant, for whatever reason simply buries his money in the ground.