While people were listening to Jesus
speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they
thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately. So he said, “A
nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and
then to return.
He called ten of his servants and gave
them ten gold coins and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’
His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to
announce, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’ But when he returned after
obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the
money, to learn what they had gained by trading.
The first came forward and said, ‘Sir,
your gold coin has earned ten additional ones. He replied, ‘Well done, good
servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten
cities.’ Then the second came and reported, ‘Your gold coin, sir, has earned
five more.’ And to this servant too he said, ‘You, take charge of five cities.’
Then the other servant came and said,
‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, for I
was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man; you take up what you did
not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.’ He said to him, ‘With
your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a
demanding man, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not
plant; why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have
collected it with interest.’
And to those standing by he said, ‘Take
the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.’ But they said
to him, ‘Sir, he has ten gold coins.’ He replied, ‘I tell you, to everyone
who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has
will be taken away. Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as
their king, bring them here and slay them before me.
After he had said this, he proceeded on
his journey up to Jerusalem.
+ + + + + + +
Reflection:
What is our mission in this world? Our
mission is to become productive followers of the Lord and how can we become
productive followers? If we spread the faith, we avoid sin and we do good we
become productive followers. If we don’t do anything we become unproductive
follower.
The good Lord would always want us to
share our faith so that we could grow for this is the only way for us to bear
fruit. But many of us are afraid to share and our excuse is we don’t know
anything about Jesus and about our Catholic faith.
How could we know if we don’t strive to
know more about Jesus? Therefore the secret to know more about Jesus is to
discover more about Him. The more that we discover the more that we would have
the tools to become His productive followers. Let us begin this discovery
journey by our presence at Holy Mass.
We therefore have to know more about Jesus
so that we could mature in faith and in the process we would be able to share
what we know about the Lord. Jesus has already equipped us with the needed
grace through our Baptism and Confirmation.
The responsibility is in our hands now. –
Marino J. Dasmarinas
