Since you have been faithful in small matters, come share your master’s joy. Today’s Gospel passage is part of the farewell discourse in Mathew’s Gospel in which Jesus talks about the events that will occur in the end times, especially the last judgment in which the righteous will be rewarded while the evil will be condemned. It was not a teaching that was meant to scare the disciples but rather to remind them to remain faithful to their call. For according to Jesus, one of the criteria that will be used in the last judgment will be fidelity: fidelity to our identity as disciples.
According to Jesus, when it comes to fidelity to our identity, we will be judged not on the evil things that we have done but rather on our failure to do anything. The servant who refused to trade his master’s talent committed no criminal offense. Had the master taken him to court, he would have been found innocent of any criminal mischief. However, he was guilty of not doing what his job description demanded of him. To his master, he was more than a servant: he had been entrusted with stewardship of his master’s estate. As such, his responsibility was not only making sure his master’s estate is secured (which he did), but also ensuring that the estate was yielding profit. By deciding to bury his master’s talent in the ground, the servant failed in one of his responsibilities.
At baptism, we are given the commission to go to the entire world in order to preach the good news. Most of the time when we hear of preaching the good news we only think of those who have dedicated their lives to spread the message of Jesus both within and across the borders of their countries. Unless we are priests or nuns or religious or directors of religious education, we never imagine ourselves as preachers of the good news. We often imagine that our role in preaching the good news is limited to the material aid we give missionaries. Inasmuch as giving material aid to missionaries is indispensable, we are still called to do the preaching too. This we do, not by joining missionary groups, but rather in the places where the Lord has planted us. We can still preach the good news without opening our bibles or even without mentioning the name Jesus. We can preach the good news by the way we treat our family members, our neighbors, our colleagues at work, those that we meet in the subway and in the malls. We preach the good news by utilizing the talents that the Lord has given us, for when we offer services in love, those who receive them will end up thanking God. Such will be our way of remaining faithful in the small things the Lord has entrusted to our care.