Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar comments on Sunday’s gospel: “‘Remain in my love.’  These words are to remain alive in the hearts of believers, permitting Jesus to address us inwardly in heart and conscience long after he no longer lives among us outwardly” (Light of the Word, p.193).  ‘Remain in my love’: these words are to be alive in and upon our hearts; they also are to be alive upon our daily consciousness and conscience.

Listen to God speaking to the prophet Jeremiah: “This is the new covenant I will make: Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts” (Jer 32: 31,33).  What is a covenant?  It is a relationship between God and the believing community.  It is both personal and communal.  God writes on the heart his Law…the Law of love…this is the new covenant.  This covenant is the eternal word that transcends time and culture…what was written perdures….it is eternal, God given, God sustained.  No evil…nothing has power over what God has written upon the heart, nothing can break this covenant…what is written is the transforming power of God’s love…which contains forgiveness and mercy. 

The gospel reading for this Sunday is the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-30). The talents are distributed to three persons: one gets five, the second two, and the third one talent, “each according to their ability”. According to Sr. Carolyn Osiek even one talent was a large amount of money. To note one scriptural source that she mentions, she says that just one talent, according to the book of Maccabees (8:11), was “the price for ninety slaves” (Give Us This Day, p.164, November 2020). Why, then, would the servant who had the one talent go off and bury it? What is the dynamic motivating his action? We are told that the person with the one talent perceived his master as ‘demanding’, ‘harvesting where he did not plant’, and ‘out of fear’ he went and buried the talent. Perhaps one reflection out of this gospel is to ask ourselves how does fear control, hinder, or immobilize us in doing something with the one talent, the gift God has given us?

“Contemplation…leads us to an attitude of care….,” says Pope Francis (September 16, 2020). Have you, have I ever thought that this is one important fruit of a contemplative practice? The ‘care’ Pope Francis is referring to is care for one another and care for creation. They belong together. If we just care for one another and don’t give the same care for creation, then, there is a ‘split’ in our caring. Our caring is not whole or complete.

“If your brother or sister sins against you…” (Mt 18:15): what are we to do? This is the theme for this Sunday’s Eucharist. All three readings circle around this theme. On the surface, the response about what to do may appear simple…It is not. Here in the gospel narrative the nascent Church is attempting to establish a paradigm for followers of Jesus. We all form and are part of the body of Christ…and this includes those who sin, or even when we sin…No matter, sinners or not, we are still part of this one living body of forgiveness and love. The epistle from Romans I would suggest is the key to unveiling the approach Jesus is asking. What we ‘owe’ to one another is nothing but ‘love’: “Love does no evil to the neighbor, hence, love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rm 13:10). ‘Love’ in this context contains other virtues such as mercy, compassion, humility….