Three aspects emerge from the talent pool. First of all, the master of this parable trusts his servants. It is also a question of a “proportionate” trust: it is given according to each one’s abilities. If, on the contrary, it were “disproportionate”, it would really prove to be tough and demanding. The third servant would then be right to say that his master reaping even where he has not sown, that is, he demands more than anyone is able to give him. Finally, this servant, not perceiving the trust that the master has in him, and not having faith in his master himself to the point of being afraid of him, ends up losing even his confidence in himself. He buries his talent because he is afraid not only of his master, but even of his own limits. His is not simply laziness; it is rather the indolence that arises from self-doubt, which in turn is generated by a false image of God. However, we have not yet said everything. The most surprising feature of the master’s face is revealed at the moment of the account: he asks his servants to justify their work, but he does not ask back what he has entrusted, nor what each one has earned. God is not a master who demands his gifts back. And the reward he offers us does not consist in the talents he enriches us with, but in making us partakers of his own joy.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey