The life of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth marked a “before and after” in history and influenced humanity from every standpoint, including our vocabulary. Proof of this is the Parable of the Talents, proclaimed this Sunday.

The Divine Master’s teaching left such an indelible mark on the human soul that the word talent took on a new meaning.

In Jesus’s time, the talent was not only a unit of weight but also a monetary measure, valued at six thousand denarii. Considering that a denarius was the wage for a day’s work (cf. Mt 20:1–2) and that an ordinary man worked about three hundred days a year, a single talent was equivalent to just over twenty years of labour!

Thus, the scene depicted by the Savior illustrates His benevolence and generosity toward humanity – gifts that are entirely gratuitous, unmerited, and disproportionate.

Furthermore, the inequality with which the Lord distributes His gifts is striking. The modern world champions absolute egalitarianism, indoctrinating successive generations to loathe hierarchy, to embrace the utopian idea of taking from those who have more to give to those who have less, and to seek to level all men down to the lowest common denominator. The God-Man thinks very differently!…

In the parable, the master entrusts true fortunes to the three servants – even to the one who receives the least – giving “to each according to his ability” (Mt 25:15).

Much like someone filling various vessels with a precious liquid, God bestows a plenitude of His gifts upon everyone, according to the measure each can contain.

Who is better? The one who receives more, or the one who receives less? In this specific case, the less favoured one was the most wicked… because goodness lies not in numbers or amounts, but in faithfulness to the master.

This is manifested in the attitude of the first servant: “Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five” (Mt 25:16).

He acts with readiness and dedication, employing the talents he received to bear fruit for his master. And, “Likewise, the one who received two [talents] made another two” (Mt 25:17).

In the third servant’s alleged “fear,” however, we perceive a mask for profound selfishness and a hidden spirit of rebellion.

He not only disdains the master by burying the talent he received, but also seeks to infect others with his resentment, publicly blaming the master for his own wickedness: “I knew you were a demanding person” (Mt 25:24).

In his distorted view, the master is to blame for his failures, and he himself is the victim of the gifts he received.

In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus immortalized two families of souls: those who, moved by gratitude, strive to repay divine goodness through dedication and service to His Kingdom; and the second, made up of the egalitarians – rebellious, insubordinate, and ungrateful for God’s generosity – who seek to blame Him for their own errors.

To the former, more will be given and they will have abundance, but for the latter, “there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” (Mt 25:30).