The Parables of Jesus: The Sower and the Seeds

Mark 4:1-20:

 

[1] And again he began to teach by the sea side; and a great multitude was gathered together unto him, so that he went up into a ship, and sat in the sea; and all the multitude was upon the land by the sea side. [2] And he taught them many things in parables, and said unto them in his doctrine: [3] Hear ye: Behold, the sower went out to sow. [4] And whilst he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the birds of the air came and ate it up. [5] And other some fell upon stony ground, where it had not much earth; and it shot up immediately, because it had no depth of earth.

[6] And when the sun was risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. [7] And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. [8] And some fell upon good ground; and brought forth fruit that grew up, and increased and yielded, one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred. [9] And he said: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. [10] And when he was alone, the twelve that were with him asked him the parable.

[11] And he said to them: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but to them that are without, all things are done in parables: [12] That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand: lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. [13] And he saith to them: Are you ignorant of this parable? and how shall you know all parables? [14] He that soweth, soweth the word. [15] And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown, and as soon as they have heard, immediately Satan cometh and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

[16] And these likewise are they that are sown on the stony ground: who when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. [17] And they have no root in themselves, but are only for a time: and then when tribulation and persecution ariseth for the word they are presently scandalized. [18] And others there are who are sown among thorns: these are they that hear the word, [19] And the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the word, and it is made fruitless. [20] And these are they who are sown upon the good ground, who hear the word, and receive it, and yield fruit, the one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred. 

 

 

 

 Praised be Jesus Christ!

 Now and Forever. Amen.

I'll admit it. Jesus made this one easy for me, since, you know, He gives its explanation right there in the Gospel. So you have a sower sows seeds, and these fall on different kinds of ground, and different things happen to them. I'll summarize the explanation as follows:

1.) The Sower is he who sows the word--the seeds are the word.
2.) The seeds that fall by the wayside and are immediately eaten by birds--this represents those who hear the word, but which immediately have the word taken from their hearts by Satan.
3.) The seeds sown on rocky ground and shoot up quickly but are scorched by the sun--this represents those who receive the word with great joy, but having no "root" in themselves, when the tribulation and persecution arise, they fall away.
4.) The seeds sown among thorns and the thorns choked them out--this represents people who receive the word, but the cares of the world, the deceit of riches, and other lusts choke the word are render it fruitless.
5.) The seed sown on good ground--this represents those who hear the word, receive it into their hearts, and produce fruit, to varying degrees.

Although Jesus explains the parable, there are things to say about it, beyond the basic explanation. In other words, the explanation Jesus gives can be unpacked further.

The sower is principally Jesus Christ, Who is simultaneously the Word that is sown, and of course the word is also the Gospel. I realize that's probably confusing. Jesus is the Word because He is the perfect self-expression of the Father, Who sends His Son to the world to redeem it. The Father is often referred to by Christ in His parables as a landowner, the owner of a vineyard, etc. He is likened to a gardener, and the Son is sent into the world to produce good crop. So, in a real sense, the Father is actually the sower. 

However, I say Jesus is principally the sower in this parable because the work of sowing is principally the work of the Church, and the various people who receive the word in their various ways are represented in this parable. Furthermore, that principle work is the spreading of the Gospel, and the Church doesn't exercise this work of Her own power, but rather it is Christ Who works through Her. Yet, this signifies something important: that every Christian who spreads the Gospel is actually the sower here, realizing that in the spreading of the Gospel, Jesus works through each of us.

The structure of the parable is interesting. It first lays out the three different stages of faith life that the Gospel may be rejected, and then finishes by revealing that the good ground represents the faithful disciple as he who overcomes each of these other failings: he who hears it, receives it, and bears fruit. This helps us understand the fundamental problem of the other three who failed: that is, he who doesn't hear it, he who doesn't receive it, and he who doesn't bear fruit. Let's take a closer look at each.

    The seed that falls by the wayside: Jesus explains that this seed represents the word sown in the heart of a person who, immediately after hearing the word, Satan comes and takes the word out of his heart. We must always remember that the principle way that Satan attacks us is through temptation. We often don't think about this in our day. We tend to think that the influence Satan and his devils have on us is through things like possession, or the lesser known obsession and oppression. But these are extraordinary interactions. The ordinary way Satan tries to harm us is to cause us to fall into sin through temptation. So, when we see Satan come to take the word away here, we should understand it first to mean that he is tempting the hearer of the word to reject it. Note, this action by Satan is immediate, meaning that as soon as the person hears the word he is tempted to reject it. Thus, immediately rejecting the Gospel, this person is principally characterized as not hearing the word--and consequently neither receives it nor bears fruit.

    The seed sown on rocky ground: Jesus explains that this seed represents the word sown in the heart of a person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. However, the receiving of the word is deficient, because this person has "no root in themselves, but are only for a time." This kind of person is flighty, moving from project to project, perhaps never staying with a thing to completion, filled with emotion, but lacking a consistent principle that grounds them in themselves. So, being filled with joy, they receive the word, recognizing its truth and goodness, but being shallow, when the tribulations of the world, or persecution, come--and they will come--they fall away from the faith. What this signifies is that, though he received the word immediately into his heart with joy, it wasn't a complete reception. It was incomplete. The word should be that thing that grounds us, that is the consistent thing in our life that we can always return to, the thing to hold onto to get through our tribulations, the one thing worth receiving persecution for. This is what it means to receive it into our hearts--to recognize that this is the pearl of great price, that we should sell everything to keep it. Thus, this person, the rocky ground, is the person who hears it but doesn't receive it, and consequently also doesn't bear fruit.

One more note on this seed. When tribulations and persecutions arise, this person becomes scandalized. We have this idea in modern times that to be scandalized means something like shocked and appalled by some evil or outrageous thing you've observed. That's not what scandal is. A scandal is a thing that leads a person into sin. So, to be scandalized means that these people, on account of the tribulation or persecution, are thereby led into sin. What sin? Well, principally to fall away from the faith. This could be through schism, heresy, apostasy, or some other grave sin.  

    The seed sown among thorns: Jesus explains that this seed represents the word sown in the heart of a person who hears the word, but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the word, and make it fruitless. This is the person who hears the word, receives it fully, but fails to produce fruit. Why? There are three reasons that are given why one may fail to produce fruit: the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and lusts after other things.

The cares of the world aren't in themselves wicked. Indeed, the cares of the world may even be good things: taking care of your family and friends, supporting yourself, engaging in politics, etc. The problem here is when the cares of the world take precedence over and above the faith. When that happens, you're choking out the Gospel from your heart, such that it does not bear fruit. Keep in mind that a fruit houses a seed, so to produce fruit is to facilitate the sowing of the word in the hearts of others. If your focus is on the world such that it excludes things of the Faith, then you will fail to     produce the fruits of that Faith, which are to spread the Gospel to others.

The deceitfulness of riches represents the lie that wealth is that thing which is necessary to improving your own life, or the lives of others. It is alluring, because wealth does allow for much good, but with wealth comes a great temptation of self-interest. Wealth in itself is neither good nor evil, but its allure is corrupting. We are all called to be content with our various stations in life, whatever they may be. And, to be content with our station in life allows us to keep our focus on our faith life. If we do this, and we produce much fruit even in our own small way, God will reward us with more. Yet, material reward should never been our focus. Our goal should ever be on our everlasting, eternal reward in heaven. If we allow ourselves to fall into the allure of wealth, and the utopian dream, this will choke out our faith, and we will not bear fruit.

The lusts after other things is definitely wicked, and this represents a failure to root out vice from our lives. It's not sufficient only to receive the word into our hearts, as is implied by our Protestant brothers. Each of these failures, the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, and other lusts, will cause us to fail to spread the Gospel. What they have in common is that they represent failures to put God and His Gospel at the center of our lives--they represent distractions that keep us from growing and maturing in the faith, such that we fail to produce fruit. Keep in mind, these "enter in", which signifies that one may start out his faith life free of these things, but that some time after receiving the word, these thing enter in, and impede the development of our faith. So, the seed that falls on this ground is heard, received, but fails to bear fruit.

    The seed that falls on good ground: This represents the person who hears the word, receives it, and produces good fruit. As seen from our previous analysis, this means it is the person who hears the word, grants his intellectual assent to it, allows it to change his life, who he is, what he's all about, his mission in life, etc., and finally, as a consequence of being thusly transformed, becomes a fellow sower in the field, evangelizing others, and spreading the Gospel. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean you have to be a missionary in Africa, or something like this. This could be as simple as parents raising their children in the Faith. That sounds simple, but it really does require parents to be fully invested in the Faith, themselves. If they aren't, their children will see through it, and will be scandalized by it, and fall away from the Faith in their adulthood.

One final note, and this goes back to my earlier point about being content with your station in life, those who produce fruit do so to varying degrees: "the one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred." This according to each person's ability, station, degree of holiness, etc. Jesus doesn't lament this fact, that not everyone produces a hundred. It doesn't seem to matter to Him. All the matters is that you are producing fruit. So, don't worry if you're not doing the kind of work that Mother Angelica did, or Pope John Paul II, or St. Francis, St. Thomas Aquinas, etc. Don't worry. Just do your best, and God will reward your effort.

If you're like me, you've probably already heard and accepted the word, and maybe aren't quite producing fruit yet, but are still working through the process of receiving the word into your heard. That's okay. Keep at it. Keep the Faith at the center. Work on rooting out vice, and building virtue, and as I say, God will reward your effort.

God bless you, and thank you for reading.

The Parables of Jesus: New Cloth and New Wine

Mark 2:21-22:

[21] No man seweth a piece of raw cloth to an old garment: otherwise the new piecing taketh away from the old, and there is made a greater rent. [22] And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: otherwise the wine will burst the bottles, and both the wine will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles. 

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and forever. Amen.

In Mark chapter 2, a series of events are recounted wherein Jesus is seen departing from the customs of the Mosaic Law. First, a scribe, in his heart, accused Jesus of blasphemy for saying to the man sick with palsy, "Son, thy sins are fogiven thee," because it was understood that only God could forgive sins. Next, His disciples were confronted by the scribes and Pharisees because Jesus was eating and drinking with publicans and sinners, which was a problem because under the Law, publicans and sinners were to be social outcasts. After that, the disciples of John and the Pharisees asked Jesus directly why neither He nor His disciples fasted, which was a practice proscribed by the Law. Finally, the Pharisees accuse Jesus directly of breaking the Law by plucking ears of corn on the Sabbath.

It was in the middle of these events, specifically after Jesus is questioned about fasting, that Jesus gives these two analogies (yes, I know, these aren't parables, properly speaking, but I'm treating them as such for the purpose of this series). On the face of it, one might be tempted to think these are just a couple of practical proverbs. They make sense, they're good advice, but in the context of the rest of the chapter, they might seem out of place. What does advice about patching a rent garment, or putting wine into bottles, have to do with fasting, or anything else that's going on in the chapter?

This is why I call them analogies, because Jesus is making a more meaningful point. In answering the question about fasting, Jesus says, "Can the children of the marriage fast, as long as the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them; and then they shall fast in those days."  This answer supplies us with the proper context with which to understand these analogies. The reason they weren't fasting is because they were in the midst of a momentous event, though the scribes and Pharisees didn't know it. That is to say, a wedding was taking place.

Jesus likens Himself to a bridegroom. This symbol is used throughout the New Testament. It signifies the union of God with man, firstly in Jesus Christ, the Incarnation, who was Himself a hypostatic union of the divine and human natures. Secondarily, it was the wedding of Jesus to His Church, the Bride--all of us. This imagery of marriage is important because it well qualifies the nature of Christ's coming. In this wedding event, a new family is made. By wedding ourselves to Christ, we become sons and daughters of God the Father. That is to say, sons- and daughters-in-law, and this is effectuated by our baptisms, and in this union, all that belongs to Christ (the treasury of merit and grace that He won on the cross) belongs to us.

What happens at a wedding? Well, I've already alluded to it: a new family is created, but how? It is through the covenantal vows professed by the spouses. In other words, Jesus came to establish a New Covenant (a marriage covenant), and this is principally what is meant by "Old" garment and "New" cloth. The old garment is the Old Law, or the Old Covenant, and the new cloth is the New Covenant.

It's important that we understand what Jesus is saying here. The new covenant cannot be "sewn" or grafted onto the old. Why? Because the new covenant would take away from the old, and a new tear would occur. What does that mean? It means it would cause confusion and division. The new covenant didn't merely add new ideas, or new ways of understanding the old law, or new precepts, or new customs, to the old. The new covenant is completely new.

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says, "Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." What this means is that in Jesus, the whole of the Law and the Prophets was fulfilled. That is to say, the Old Garment's purpose had been completed, fulfilled. After Jesus, the Old Covenant no longer served a purpose. People who think that this covenant is still in place with the Jews are wrong, otherwise they must deny that Jesus fulfilled it.

No, indeed. The New Covenant is entirely new, and the old has been fulfilled, and come to its end. But this is only the first of the two analogies. The second is about new wine and old bottles. The wine is that which is poured into and fills up a container. The bottles here are us, people, and the wine is the Holy Spirit, and the sanctifying graces of the Sacraments that He pours into our souls. The old bottle is the old man spoken of by Paul in Romans 6:6, Ephesians 4:22, and Colossians 3:9, and the new bottle is the spiritual man, reborn by baptism in Christ, to be His bride.

Notice, Jesus says of the new wine put into old bottles, "otherwise the wine will burst the bottles, and both the wine will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost." That is to say, you cannot confer the sacramental graces upon the man who is not yet made a member of the Church (except Baptism, which is that very entrance into the Church and the life of grace), the graces will be to no effect (the wine will be spilled), and the soul of such a one will be damned (the bottle will be lost). "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 11:29)

It must be stated strongly that in order to receive the grace of salvation, one cannot live according to the Old Covenant, but rather one must become a new man in Christ through baptism, and live according the new law of Christ. And what is the principal difference between the Old Law and the New Law? Under the Old Law, all was done according to restraint, according to prohibition or mandate. Under the New Law, all is done according to good will, through the love and fervor and joy of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who lives according to right virtue, but only because it's required of him, and not out of the generosity of his heart, for the love of God and his fellow man, is living not according to the law of the New Covenant, but as the Old Man, according to the Old Law. It isn't so much that the moral precepts of the Old Law are to be abandoned, but rather that they be done according to the right spirit.

So, what we learn in Mark chapter 2 is this: under the Old Law, only God could forgive sins. Annually, at Passover, the sins of the people were put on sin offerings and sacrificed to God, and this action was completed by the high priest, but it wasn't the action of the high priest that forgave the people their sins, it was God alone. In the New Law, Jesus is revealing that this may not be the case. Jesus is both God and the High Priest, and in the establishment of the priesthood among the Apostles, He conferred His power to forgive sins upon them (John 20:23). Instead of men going to the Temple for forgiveness, the Temple, Who is Christ, Who is His Church, goes out to them to offer forgiveness.

In the Old Law, sinners and publicans were social outcasts, and if they repented and wanted forgiveness of their sins, and to be brought back into the public life of Israel, they had to go to the temple, and follow the instructions of the priests. In the New Law, Jesus goes out to the sinners and publicans, in order to call them to repentance and conversion. Thus, we are to go out and evangelize all people, calling them to turn away from their sinful lives, to repent and be baptized, and to become sons and daughters of God. Under the New Law, we are to be physicians of souls, because all men are sick with sin. Instead of leaving sinners to find it within themselves to repent and convert, we are to go out generously to call them to repentance with encouragement and love.

According to the Old Law, one was required to fast on appointed times and days as a matter of restraint, of submission. According to the New Law, we feast and fast from the good will of our hearts, feasting to rejoice in all the good things that God has given to us, and fasting in sorrow for sin and death, and in remembrance of what Jesus endured for us.

Under the Old Law, all work was prohibited on Sabbath, in order to rest from work in imitation of God. Under the New Law, the charity of man, which is love for God, impels him to do necessary work on the Sabbath in order to care for the needs of his fellow man, especially his Christian brother, who is also yoked to Christ, and of whom Jesus says, "as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40)

Let us rejoice in this New Cloth, which is the Church, and of the New Wine that is poured into our hearts, the grace of the Holy Spirit and His Sacraments. We are truly blessed!

God bless you, and thank you for reading.

The Parables of Jesus: The Talents

Matthew 25:14-30:

 [14] For even as a man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods; [15] And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey.

[16] And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. [17] And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two. [18] But he that had received the one, going his way digged into the earth, and hid his lord's money. [19] But after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them. [20] And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above.

[21] His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. [22] And he also that had received the two talents came and said: Lord, thou deliveredst two talents to me: behold I have gained other two. [23] His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. [24] But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed. [25] And being afraid I went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold here thou hast that which is thine.

[26] And his lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed: [27] Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. [28] Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. [29] For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. [30] And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and forever. Amen.

In the last post, we went through the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. This parable was principally about being ready at all times for the coming of Christ, whether that be His second coming at the end of time, or His coming at the time of our deaths: we must always be ready to go before Him for judgment.

This parable is a continuation of the same teaching, but instead of focusing on our readiness, our anticipation of Christ's coming, instead it focuses on the quality of our preparation. The parable begins with, "a man is going into a far country", other translations render it "foreign country", and this refers to Jesus' ascension into heaven of His body. For, although Christ's Divine Nature is not foreign to heaven, Jesus' human nature is, as it is a creation of the earth. "After a long time", He returns, and He exercises judgment over His servants. The phrase, "after a long time", refers to all that interval of time between His ascending to heaven, and to that time of our judgment.

Before the man goes on his journey, he gives to his three servants five talents, two talents, and one talent. The Church Fathers have interpreted this in various ways, but I would like to highlight two. First, using the symbolism of numbers, the five refers to the five bodily senses. Thus, according to the same fathers, it can be interpreted to mean that to the servant who received the five talents was given knowledge of the external world, knowledge of the earth, of the world around him. The two refers to the powers of understanding and action--understanding being a distinct idea from knowledge. One can have knowledge without understanding. Finally, the one refers, according to the fathers, to understanding only--that is, understanding without action.

Second, attached to this gradation is the phrase, "to everyone according to his proper ability." What this means is that the reason each servant is given a different number of talents (by the way, a talent was a gold coin, in case you hadn't heard that before) is because they each have varying capacities, differing abilities. Moreover, the significance of this is that God gives to each one of us according to our own capacities. So, if we find that we have less, we should be humble and recognize that this is because our abilities are less than others. However, it also means that to him who has greater capacity, he also has greater responsibility, because he is then given more over which to be responsible.

The significance of the "doubling" of the talents is this: that he who received the five talents, or knowledge of the outer world, used that same knowledge to gain knowledge of the spiritual, or Divine world. He who received the two talents, or understanding and action, used these powers to gain understanding of the same Divine world, and also to grow in those spiritual virtues which are proper to holiness. Finally, he who received the one talent, understanding only, took no action to grow his understanding--to take his understanding and deepen it. Rather he buried it in the earth, which is to say that he didn't put it to use for God, for His Kingdom, but instead used it exclusively to meet the ends of his earthly life in the pursuits of worldly gain.

When the time of judgment arrives, when the lord returns, the two who doubled their talents give back to the lord all of the money, both the original amounts they were given, as well as the amounts they gained in addition. They recognize that all of it belongs to the lord, not just that which he originally gave to them. This is why he calls them "faithful" servants, because they did not attempt to appropriate for themselves that which did not belong to them. For this, they are allowed to "enter into the joy" of the lord. Do we recognize that all the gains of our lives do not truly belong to us, but to God, whether they be gains in knowledge, gains in understanding and wisdom, gains in prestige, gains in wealth, gains in progeny, etc.? Are we prepared to give it all to God, or do we seek to claim some of it for ourselves?

When the wicked servant comes to the lord, and explains why he didn't do anything with it, the lord calls him both wicked and slothful. He calls him slothful because the servant, recognizing in the same way as the other two servants did that whatever gains he makes with the gold won't belong to him anyway, so why bother? And this is what makes him wicked also, because he is filled with pride. He is a servant of the lord, but does not actually serve the lord, but instead serves himself by freeing himself from the burden of working to build up the wealth of his lord. This makes him wicked, because we are all called to serve, both to serve God and to serve each other. If we see no gain in it for ourselves, that doesn't matter, we are still called to serve.

This really clarifies the Catholic position on "faith and works." The lord, when he exercises judgment on the good and faithful servants, rewards them both with the same reward: heaven. It doesn't matter that one doubled up his talents to ten, and the other only doubled his talents to four, the reward is the same. Why? Because it's a gratuitous reward. They are servants, and don't have to be paid for doing what is expected of them. Yet the lord does pay them, with great reward, because they were good and faithful. And He does expect us to work. For, if we do not, if we fail to be good and faithful, if we fail to produce fruit from what we've been given, then we will not receive the reward. Thus, salvation, which is itself a gratuitous gift and cannot be earned, will still not be granted to those who are "slothful and wicked" servants. So, we believe that works are necessary for salvation, not because of a legal contract with God, as though God owes us heaven for the work we've done, but rather because God has told us that if we don't do anything with the gifts we've been given, if we are wicked and slothful, then we will be thrown into the outer darkness.

Indeed, the wicked servant even admits that he believes his lord is severe, and fails to act anyway. And the lord, too, says, "that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed. Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers." What does this mean? The bankers are those who have been entrusted with the "treasury of grace", that is, the Bishops. To give his talent to the bankers means that, even if he didn't work to gain understanding of heavenly things (double his talent), he should have at least put his earthly understanding to the good use of the Church, through the Bishops, who then, making use of his earthly gifts, could have expanded the spiritual wealth of the Church (conversion of sinners, application of the sacraments, teaching through exhortation, homiletics, encyclicals, etc., the salvation of souls) to the glory of God.

But the wicked servant didn't even do that! In other words, he failed to live up to his Christian vocation in every sense. He neither used his Christian gifts to build up his own faith and virtue, nor did he assist those around him, nor did he even bother to put his gifts toward the use of the Church, but instead focused his gifts entirely on worldly affairs (buried it in the earth).

Finally, after the servant has received his judgment, he is then punished, and the punishment is twofold. First, he loses even that which he thought he had (remember, all belongs to God), and second, he is thrown into the outer darkness where there is weeping (sorrow) and gnashing of teeth (regret). What he had, the one talent, or understanding, is given to the one who had been given five talents. We might think this is unfair, why not give it to the one who was given two? First, it fulfills the earthly justice, which is that he who produced more, should receive more in reward. Secondly, and more importantly, since the five talents signifies knowledge of earthly things, and that knowledge was doubled to include heavenly things, and since the two talents signifies both understanding and virtue, and it is doubled in piercing into the inward and mystical realities, it may be rightly said that he who received the two talents actually received more than he who received the five. Thus, to him who had only knowledge, it was also given to him understanding. For God gives all gifts, and may take them away, and grant them to whom He chooses.

However, there is a deeper meaning here, which is that sin destroys those gifts which we possess. Sin darkens the intellect, for example. Thus, a man who has been given the gift of understanding, for example, through his sin actually loses that same gift. And, while he continues to think he possesses this gift, he is only deluding himself, as he comes to believe wicked things to be good, and good things to be wicked, true things to be false, and false things to be good. This is what happened with Solomon, who possessed the greatest wisdom in all the world, but through his sin, he began to lose that wisdom, and ended up using that great intellect of his to make poorer and poorer judgments, which he continued to believe were wise.

Sin damages our natures. This is unavoidable. Thus, works are doubly necessary, because the Gospel is meant to heal us, to build up our natures, even to deify us through Christ's own deity. This cannot happen if we continue to sin. Our sin is antithetical to the Gospel, and all who revel in sin are rightly called "antichrist." For, in that revelry, rather than becoming more like Christ, they become less, instead of moving toward Him, they move away.

And in the end, whatever great gifts we were given, both at births, but most especially at our baptisms, we will lose, if we are like this wicked and slothful servant. We will plunge into that outer darkness which is hell, never to return.

What have you done with the gifts God has given to you? Seek ye first, the kingdom, and all these things and more besides will be given to you. Be a good and faithful servant, so that you may hear those blessed words pass Our Lord's lips when you stand before Him in judgment. Then, enter into His joy.

God bless, and thank you for reading.