The Lord be with you, a reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Well, 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 return. He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, engage and 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 as our king. But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants call 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 10 additional ones. He replied, well done, good servant. You have been faithful in this very small matter. Take charge of 10 cities.
Then the second came and reported, your gold coin, sir, has earned five more. 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're a demanding man. You take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plan. 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 don't lay down and harvesting what I don't planned. Why didn't you put my money in the bank? None of my return I would have collected with interest." To those standing by, he said, take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who was 10. But they said to him, sir, he has 10 gold coins. He replied,
I tell you that 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 these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slay them before me. After he had said this, he proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.
the gospel of the Lord. This month in November, we continue to think about the four last things and how we're supposed to live each day with those as our future inevitable coordinates. Today in the gospel, we have what's called the parable of the 10 coins.
or the parable of the coin, or the parable of the meaners, which is what they're called in Greek. It's similar to the parable of the talents we have in St. Matthew's gospel. It's all about how we're supposed to be living in time. In order for us to be able to understand it, I first want to get two things out of the way, because if you pay attention to the gospel and really care about them, at least one, you're asking for an answer.
Specifically as for those enemies of mine who didn't want me to be king bring them here and slay them before me What's the moral of that? Goes back to what everyone listening to Jesus would have remembered when Herod the Great died Herod the one who tried to assassinate Jesus when he was a baby in Bethlehem his three sons
were his ears. He had tried to divide his one kingdom into three parts, so that he wouldn't have to play favors. But each of them needed to go to Rome to be confirmed by Caesar. When Herod Acoleus was going there, the future king of Judea to be confirmed, the one who would eventually behead John the Baptist, a delegation was sent from Judah saying, we don't want him to be our king.
Caesar heard the delegation. He didn't appoint Akuleus king. He appointed him Tetrach, which was essentially the same thing with all the authority of the king. But when Akuleus returned to Judea, he called in people and he slayed them. Jesus was taking advantage of that historical knowledge to get people to pay really attention to how they're getting ready for the kingdom.
that leads us to the second thing of context. While the people were listening to Jesus speak, remember he was now going from Jericho up to Jerusalem where he would enter into his reign and there was huge anticipation of exactly what he would do. While they were listening to him 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 was going to teach them, okay, if you think it's immediate,
write yourself with the king, get ready for the kingdom. And he was about to show them how to do that. That's why the parable was here. And he was conveying with that context of Arcoleus, the stakes involved for us to get it right. He doesn't want to slay anyone. He came to save us all. But if we're not going to live as he teaches, if we're not going to enter into his true kingdom, then we're already dead.
He doesn't even have to finish us because we're separating ourselves from his life. Now we can get to the parable. There's a difference between this parable and the parable of the talents. Remember the parable of the talents.
Jesus gave, well, the owner in the parable, gave to each according to his abilities. One got five, one got two, one got one down. All enormous sums. And sometimes we can focus a little bit on, am I the five or am I the two or am I the one? What has God given me relative to everybody else? And there is value there. No question about it. Because in every
worthwhile trade, some are going to have more than us, some are going to have less. But we have to use whatever we have for the kingdom. That's what the real moral of that parable was. This parable of the coins, everybody gets exactly the same at the beginning. He calls in 10 servants and he gives them each a gold meaner. What's a meaner? A meaner was 100 days wages.
or a third, therefore, of a year's salary because the average work year was 300 days and then you'd have the Sabbath off. So if somebody's making 30,000 for an annual salary, it's about $10,000 to invest. First guy gets it. He goes out and he invests it. He comes back and he gives him $100,000. Extraordinary.
And the gratitude was even greater than that return on investment. He says, you've been faithful in these little things. Now I will give you 10 cities. And he didn't even take back the 10 gold coins that he didn't. He wanted them to continue to invest them. Second goes out. It makes a 500% rate of return enormous. And he gives them five cities.
We don't know what happens to three through nine. But then the tenth one comes and he gives him the one goal going back that he had hidden in a handkerchief because he was too afraid to risk, to invest, to beard dividends. Afraid of what? Afraid that he'd have to be held to an account, afraid
that the one who had given him the coin has high standards. Like, sir, here's your gold coin. I kept it stored away in a handkerchief where I was afraid of you because you're a demanding man. And then the owner told him, with your own words, I shall condemn you. You wicked servant. He didn't even try. It's interesting in both of these two parables.
What would have been the reaction had Jesus said somebody went out, worked really hard, tried to invest, and lost money. But Jesus didn't bring that up in either of the parables because basically he's trying to apply. You couldn't lose. All you had to do was try. But even, contractually, if it were there, I think you would have treated this guy not as a wicked and lazy serpent, perhaps an incompetent serpent, but not a wicked and lazy one.
What's the moral of this? It's to help us to focus on what we all have in common. What do we have in common? We have in common the gift of our life. We have in common the gift of our health. We have in common the gift of our baptism. We have in common the gift of the Word of God. We have in common the opportunity for daily mass, for daily confession. We have in common
family and friendships for the most part, at least in general, we have so much in common. What are we doing with all those gifts? Are we bearing one? Are we bearing five? Are we bearing ten? Are we bearing more? Are we investing them? How are we taking advantage of those gifts? Or do we bury them? Do we not take advantage of them?
Jesus wants us to focus on this is he's going up to enter into his kingdom and he said it right then because they thought that the kingdom was going to happen right away and he told them, no, I'm going to go away on a trip. And now it's your time to invest what I am giving you.
And so we have to look, if the judgment were to come today, what will we be giving the Lord in return based on His trust, based on His confidence, based on the enormous wealth He's given us? Are we bearing dividend? What is the return on investment? If we return well, the Lord's going to give us something far greater than 10 cities.
He's going to give us the eternal Jerusalem. And that opens us to today's first reading. The last two days we had Jesus' words in the Book of Revelation to the seven churches of the Aspira and Asia Minor. Now we get into the heart of the Book of Revelation. We get a vision of heaven. We get a vision of one of the great coins God has given us, which is the capacity to pray. We get another one.
which you'll see in a second if you didn't pick it up, we get the word of God and specifically the gospel. But it's a good time for us to examine what profit we're bearing as a result of these extraordinary gifts. We could spend whole retreats, we could spend the rest of our lives actually interpreting the symbolism of the Book of Revelation. Just a couple things. Twenty-four elders, most of the saints of the church are going to talk about the twelve patriarchs
or the 12 major prophets, and then the 12 apostles. These four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back, who are they? First resembles a lion, the second a calf, the third like a man, the fourth like an eagle in flight. If you want to know the real answers to it, just go look at the pulpit over there, because you'll have all four of those creatures in the borrow leaves at the pulpit.
St. Irenaeus was the one who gave the definitive interpretation that the church had been following for the last 1,800 years. That the lion is St. Mark because the lion is always a symbol of regality, and he starts off as gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ, son of David, the king, son of God, the king of kings and parentheses. Second, someone like an oxen, or hear a little oxen,
That's always been interpreted St. Luke, because of the ox and the ass and the nativity scenes at the beginning of his gospel. The third of the face of a man that's always been St. Matthew, because he's constantly talking about Jesus as the son of man. The fourth looked like an eagle in flight, which St. Aaronius interpreted to be St. John, whose gospel sores with theological scope to be able to see that big picture
Other interpreters have tried to say that the lion is the king of creation, that the calf is the king of sacrifices that would be offered to God, that men is the king of the summit of all creation, not just the animals like the lion and the eagle, the king of the air. But I go with that first interpretation, and the church has ever since. So it's an opportunity for us to say, what advantage am I making
off the gift of the Word of God. Am I really getting to know the Word of God? Am I getting to know Christ through that Word of God so that I can become a living commentary on it? Earlier today I was reading
call him from a friend of mine and he was talking about sacred scripture and he was a little distracted by it because apparently there was a sacred scripture bee in Florida recently and they were going through a whole bunch of kids like a spelling bee who seemed to know the entire Bible by heart. One girl there was a little link who had already memorized 15 books of the Bible
including all 150 Psalms, and she was being justly praised. St. Thomas Aquinas is such an extraordinary theologian because while he was imprisoned by his parents, he memorized the entire New Testament. But we take the gift of sacred scripture seriously, such that we would really come to know it by heart, so that it could be within our heart and our head and influence every love and every thought. Are we bearing 10 based on the gift of one?
But here, too, we see what those four living creatures and the 24 elders and everybody was doing. They were praying, but praying in a particular way. A lot of the times we think about prayer, just as petition and intercession, asking God for what we need. Next week, we'll be celebrating the National Feast of Thanksgiving, which we'll be able to focus on our thanking God for everything, just like the first pilgrims.
and the indigenous celebrated in 1620 in Massachusetts. We likewise every mass do prayers of petition, sorry, contrition, which we beg God for forgiveness. But by far the most important form of prayer is prayer of praise. It's the highest, it's the least self-centered form of prayer because we're just focused on the one we love
And just like someone truly in love just says, I love you, and sometimes can just almost adore the gift of the other person. That's what we're called to do with God before we ever ask Him, before we ever thank Him for what He's given, before we ever say, how sorry we are. We start with Him, and that's what we're seeing in the Book of Revelation and in the Psalm today.
Day and night they don't stop exclaiming, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who is and who was and who was to come. Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you have created all things because of your will they came to be and were created. The incredible opportunity we have to praise God is the greatest preparation for heaven. If we wish to spend heaven praising God,
The greatest investment is for us to do so now. And that's likewise what the 150th of 150 Psalms gives us today as the exclamation point for the entire Psalter. It's all about the praise of God. Praise the Lord in his sanctuary. Praise him in the firmament. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him for his sovereign majesty. Praise him with the blast of trumpet. Praise him with liar and whore. Praise him with temporal and dance. Praise him with strings and pipes.
Praise with sounding symbols, praise him with clashing symbols. Basically, every instrument on deck, everything we have, the entire orchestra, let's use it. And to let everything that has breath, not just human beings, but all creatures, let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. And then Hallelujah finishes, which is the Hebrew for praise the Lord. Do we take advantage?
Do we use the gift we have to praise the Lord with all with God? Today at Mass, we come and we've heard from one of the four living creatures in the gospel about what Jesus himself has said. We come here to pray, especially to praise the Lord with the greatest act of praise that has ever happened and trusting ourselves with Jesus to his love.
We come here, prepared about to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We pray here that the Lord will not slay us, but the King will give us Himself as our life. The greatest gift we have to invest is the gift each day of Jesus in Holy Communion.
Let us ask Him to help us to bear far more than even 10 gold coins. Praise be Jesus Christ.
