Investment Sunday NOT Judgment Day
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30.
When we read today’s readings, especially the gospel, from the background of the liturgical year that draws to a close, the temptation is to focus on the four last things – death, judgment, heaven and hell. This approach, of itself, is laudable, but it smacks off fatalism. It is as if we stand before God’s judgment here and now, which is not the case. However, a new perspective to our liturgical readings becomes manifest when we ask why a “good woman” is being praised on a Sunday that draws our attention to Judgment Day or the fact of reward and punishment?
“Investment” presents itself as an alternative message for this Sunday. The idea of investment comes from the gospel, a parable of a man who entrusted talents to his servants and went on a journey. The parable ends with Judgment Day or an account of the stewardship of those who received talents. This points to the fact that God invests in us, his children, and he waits for a favorable time to come for reckoning or account. The period of the absence of God, exemplified by the journey of the man in the parable, or the period between God’s investment and Judgment Day, is the period of hard work and investment in God using the same talents he has given to us to work out our salvation.
It may be surprising to many that it is possible to come to the gospel with a capitalistic mindset – investment. This is easily accepted because the gospel reading itself admits that “talents” could be understood as “money”; when the lazy servant buried his talent, he was told “Should you not then have put my MONEY in the BANK so that I could have got it back with INTEREST on my return?” Besides, Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels use a lot of capitalistic or financial terms to talk about the faith. Two classic examples are the Lord’s Prayer “forgive us our debt,” and the parable of servant whose debt was forgiven by his Master, but he throttled his own debtor instead of forgiving the debts of the man who owed him. Obviously, this bad slave who was incapable of forgiveness, his own debts that were cancelled were revoked, and he was sent to jail. These two examples put our perspective on the readings of this Sunday on orthodox footing – investment Sunday.
“Investment” captures well the message of this Sunday because it reminds us that every good we do is credited to us by God, and we shall receive our reward on Judgment Day. It also teaches us that, when we fail to invest in God, we prepare ourselves for God’s punishment. The importance of “investment” points to the usefulness of seeing human life on earth as a preparation for heaven. In other words, human life on earth is a continuum; there is no separation between creation (beginning) and end/eschatology (Judgment Day). God created human beings for himself, for his glory. It follows that human beings came from God and they will return to God. Therefore, the return journey to God is via investment – investing in God – by doing God’s will. Consequently, Christian morality is not about keeping and observing God’s laws, but first and foremost, virtue ethics, asking ourselves “what kind of persons did God create us to become.” It is who we should be that counts, not what we should avoid doing.
Our first reading shows us the advantage of becoming who we should be. The “good wife” of our first reading shows what kind of earth and family we will have should people invest in God. The “good wife” of today’s first reading exemplifies the joy of generosity and the happiness that accrues from that. Her dedication to her family and her generosity to the poor and needy earned her praises, and she becomes a model for Christian life. Indeed, many scholars in biblical and theological circles call our first reading the epitome of servitude and slavish life. But what does one call the life, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ? Here again, it is only the conception of “investment” in God that gives one the right frame of mind to use one’s talents for the glory of God. Investors do not count their costs, they focus on their gains and profit, after investment. So, our first reading suggests the right Christian attitude towards the worship of God – the kind of persons we should be, images of God on earth.
Christians who live their lives like this “good wife,” like the two servants of the gospel reading who invested in God, are never anxious about Judgment Day; on the contrary, they are confident of God’s return – parousia – and they are prepared for it. The imageries used by Paul, in our second reading, confirm the confidence of Christians who opt for virtue ethics, who have become or are trying to become the images of God that they are supposed to be. In the words of Paul, “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.”
From Paul’s analogies, it is clear that the gospels and every Christian message is a fortification and preparation for Judgment Day. The knowledge which the Christian message furnishes is what leads Christians, and all believers, out of the “darkness” of sin and ignorance and provides them with the “light” to walk like true children of God. Besides, the metaphors of “light” and “darkness” confirm the message of the gospel that when we invest in God, then we are children of the light, but when we fail to invest in God then we opt for darkness. As a matter of fact, the choice is always ours to make, whether we want to belong to “darkness’ or “light”. Hence, Paul’s advice to “stay alert and sober” should be taken seriously, it should be considered a call to invest in God now, in order to reap the harvest of eternal life in the world to come.
Furthermore, Paul makes it clear, in the first part of our second reading, that it is impossible for a pregnant woman not to know that she is both pregnant and that a delivery day shall come. The unpredictability of the day of delivery is not the same as the ignorance that there will be a delivery day. To be pregnant is to begin to prepare for a delivery day, especially if we care about the pregnancy and its outcome. In the same vein, Paul advices Christians to realize that there will be Judgment Day, but he warns that only those in the “dark” who need to be afraid, and not those in the “light”. The fear of Judgment Day is the yardstick for measuring lack of preparedness for Judgment Day and the need for repentance. Therefore, this Sunday, from every single reading, draws our minds and attention to the need to invest in God in order to live in the light, to free our minds from the anxieties of Judgment Day, and to enlist us among those whose virtues will be praised like the “good wife” of our first reading.
Assignment for the Week:
Can you do the work of a slave this week to prove that working for one’s salvation is not servitude but investment in God?