Now is the time for Salvation and Fruitfulness

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is one. Amen.

The Gospel and epistle today have a similar message. Let’s begin with the epistle from the 6th chapter of St Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. St Paul urges; and I quote: “Working together with [Christ],… we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For [he prophet Isaiah] says, ‘At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in any one’s way,” wrote St Paul.

That is quite a challenge! “Now is the acceptable time…. Now is the day of salvation.” St Paul is writing to the new Christians in Corinth, but he is also looking into the past and looking into the future. He is looking into the past by quoting the words of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 49. Verse 8: “At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.” Those verses were also cited by a bishop in the fifth century, St Fulgentius of the city of Ruspe in North Africa. The saint wrote, and I quote: “The blessed Paul knew the distance between the present world and the world to come. He knew that only in the present world could the blessing of salvation be acquired but that only in the world to come could a just reward be given to individuals according to the quality of their work, good or wicked. So, when [Paul] has repeated the prophetic testimony [of Isaiah] that God speaks, ‘In an acceptable time, I heard you, and on the day of salvation, I helped you,’ [Paul] immediately followed it up by adding, ‘Behold, now is a very acceptable time; now is the day of salvation,” concluded St Fulgentius.

St Basil explained clearly and bluntly why “now is the acceptable time” for the Christians of Corinth and for us. He wrote; and I quote: “This is the time for repentance; the next life [is the time] for reward. Now is the time to endure; then will be the day [to be comforted]. Now God is the helper of [all who] turn aside from the evil way; then he will be the dread and unerring [judge] of the thoughts and words and deeds of humankind. Now we enjoy his [patience with us]; then we shall know his just judgment…; and everyone shall receive according to [their] works,” concluded St Basil.

That is quite important advice from St Basil—“Now is the time for repentance… now is the time to endure.” To repent is to regret the evil or bad things one has done in the past and as a result to change one’s behaviour. To endure is to wait patiently for something, to put up with something that is really bothering us a great deal. Surprisingly, in the midst of a trial, we often triumph not through praying the trial will go away, but by enduring it. Precisely as St James advises us in the opening verses of his letter; and I quote: “Count it all joy, my brethren when you meet various trials, for you [learn] that the testing of your faith produces perseverance [that is, continuing effort to achieve something despite setbacks]. And let perseverance have its operation in full, so that you may be perfect and whole, lacking nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let [them] ask for it from God who gives to all generously … and it will be given to [them],” concluded St James.

Here then is a bold but possible path that we can each follow throughout our lives. We can accept trials. They are seldom sent by God, but come to each of us because of our sins or the sins of others, because some people chose to do evil rather than good. However, we can pray to God precisely as St James advises for the perseverance and wisdom that empowers us to endure the trial. Then it shall be for each of us as it was for the prophet Isaiah, for St Paul, for St Fulgentius, for St Basil and for St James. It shall be “the acceptable time, the day of salvation” when we persevere and steadily draw closer to Christ. This is a challenge we can each meet.

A similar challenge arises in today’s Gospel from St Matthew, chapter 25, verses 14 to 30, known as “the parable of the talents.” Here three servants are given coins called “talents” by their master and landowner who is “about to go on a journey.” One servant is given five talents, another two talents and a third servant, one talent. That was quite a lot of money in ancient Palestine, quite a responsibility, because a single talent was worth three months’ wages to each of these servants. You will recall that the servants who received five talents and two talents each doubled their wealth. However, the servant who received only one talent buried it and returned it to his master of whom he was “afraid” and thought was “a hard man, reaping where [he] did not sow, and gathering where [he] scattered no seed.” 

In this parable in the final verse of today’s Gospel, the third servant is thrown into “the outer darkness” of a life without God. At times, we too can behave like that third servant—quietly burying our abilities, telling no one how we can help them, being afraid to pray and listen to what Christ is asking us to do. Perhaps we too at times think that Christ is a hard person asking us to do things that are too difficult for us to do. That would be a serious mistake.

St Gregory the Great preached; and I quote: “The person who received one talent went away, dug in the earth and hid his master’s money. Hiding a talent in the earth means employing one’s abilities in earthly affairs, failed to seek spiritual profit, never raising one’s heart from earthly thoughts…. Many people in the church resemble that servant. They are afraid to attempt a better way of life but not [afraid] of resting in idleness….”

St Gregory then turns his attention “to the person who received five talents and gained another five.” St Gregory offers us a very bold interpretation of this parable. He preached; and I quote: “There are some who, even without knowing how to probe into inward and mystical matters, use the natural gifts they have received to teach correctly those they can reach to strive for their heavenly home. While guarding themselves from physical [thoughtlessness and sexual immorality], from striving after earthly things and from taking pleasure in things they can see, they restrain others too from these things by their [example and their advice],” concluded St Gregory.

That is a powerful insight from St Gregory. We are not being judged by Christ on how much we can, in St Gregory’s phrase, “probe into inward and mystical matters.” We are being judged on how we live, how we relate to others, how we serve as models for others in our families, with our friends and people we do not even know. Christ is not trying to “throw us into the outer darkness.” On the contrary, Christ wants to gather each of us up into heaven with Him. We are each given different talents, different abilities. Our personal challenge is to use those abilities to serve Christ on earth and then to join Him in heaven.

And so, we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages.              Father Emmanuel Kahn