From: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
The Wisdom of the Cross (Continuation)
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Commentary:
26-29. As in the case of the Apostles—”You did not choose me, but I chose you’.
(Jn 15:16)—it is the Lord who chooses, who gives each Christian his vocation. St
Paul emphasizes that the initiative lies with God by saying three times that it
was God who chose those Corinthians to be Christians, and he did not base his
choice on human criteria. Human wisdom, power, nobility, these were not what
brought them to the faith—nor the inspirations which God later gives. “God is no
respecter of persons (cf. 2 Chron 19:7; Rom 2:1; Eph 6:9; Col 3:25; etc.)”, St. J.
Escriva reminds us. “When he invites a soul to live a life fully in accordance with
the faith, he does not set store by merits of fortune, nobility, blood or learning.
God’s call precedes all merits [...]. Vocation comes first. God loves us before we
even know how to go toward him, and he places in us the love with which we can
respond to his call” (”Christ Is Passing By”, 33).
Thus, God chooses whomever he wants to, and these first Christians — uneduca-
ted, unimportant, even despised people, in the world’s eyes—will be what he uses
to spread his Church and convert the wise, the strong and the “important”: this
disproportion between resources and results will make it quite clear that God is
responsible for the increase.
However, this does not mean that none of the first Christians was educated or in-
fluential, humanly speaking. The Acts of the Apostles, for example, tell us about
early converts who were out of the ordinary—a minister of the court of the Kan-
dake of Ethiopia; a centurion, Cornelius; Apollos; Dionysius the Areopagite; etc.
“It would appear that worldly excellence is not godly unless God uses it for his
honor. And therefore, although at the beginning they were indeed few, later God
chose many humanly outstanding people for the ministry of preaching. Hence
the gloss which says, ‘If the fisherman had not faithfully led the way, the orator
would not have humbly followed’” (St Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on 1 Cor,
ad loc.”).
27. St Paul’s words remind us that supernatural resources are the thing an apos-
tle must rely on. It is true that human resources are necessary, and God counts
on them (cf. 1 Cor 3:5-10); but the task God has commended to Christians ex-
ceeds their abilities and can be carried out only with his help. The Second Vati-
can Council reminded priests of this verse when stressing the need for humility;
and what it says can be useful to all Christians: “The divine task for the fulfillment
of which they have been set apart by the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 13:2) transcends all
human strength and human wisdom; for ‘God chose what is weak in the world to
shame the strong’ (1 Cor 1:27). Therefore the true minister of Christ is conscious
of his own weakness and labors in humility. He tries to discover what is well-
pleasing to God (cf. Eph 5:10) and, bound as it were in the Spirit (cf. Acts 20:22),
he is guided in all things by the will of him who wishes all men to be saved. He is
able to discover and carry out that will in the course of his daily routine by humbly
placing himself at the service of all those who are entrusted to his care by God in
the office that has been committed to him and the variety of events that make up
his life” (”Presbyterorum Ordinis”, 15).
30-31. God’s call makes a person a member of Christ Jesus, through Baptism;
and if a Christian is docile to grace he or she will gradually become so like Christ
as to be able to say with St Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives
in me” (Gal 2:20). This “being in Christ Jesus” enables a person to share in the
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption which Jesus is for the
Christian.
Jesus Christ indeed is the “wisdom” of God (cf. Col 1:15f; Heb 1:2f), and knowing
him is true wisdom, the highest form of wisdom. He is for us our “righteousness”,
because through the merits obtained by his incarnation, death and resurrection
he has made us truly righteous (= just, holy) in God’s sight He is also the source
of all holiness, which consists in fact in identification with Christ. Through him,
who has become “redemption” for us, we have been redeemed from the slavery of
sin. “How well the Apostle orders his ideas: Good has made us wise by rescuing
us from error; and then he has made us just and holy by giving us his spirit”
(Chrysostom, “Hom. on 1 Cor, 5, ad loc.”).
In view of the complete gratuitousness of God’s choice (vv. 25-28) and the im-
mense benefits it brings with it, the conclusion is obvious: “’Deo omni, gloria. All
glory to God.’ It is an emphatic conclusion of our nothingness. He, Jesus, is every-
thing. We, without him, are worth nothing: nothing. Our vainglory would be just
that: vain glory; it would be sacrilegious robbery. There should be no room for
that ‘I’ anywhere” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 780).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 25:14-30
The Parable of the Talents
[19] Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled ac-
counts with them. [20] And he who received the five talents came forward, brin-
ging five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I
have made five talents more.’ [21] His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and
faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter
into the joy of your master.’ [22] And he also who had the two talents came for-
ward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two ta-
lents more.’ [23] His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant;
you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of
your master.’ [24] He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying,
‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathe-
ring where you did not winnow; [25] so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent
in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ [26] But his master answered him,
‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed,
and gather where I have not winnowed? [27] Then you ought to have invested my
money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my
own with interest. [28] So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the
ten talents. [29] For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have
abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. [30]
And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and
gnash their teeth.’”
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Commentary:
14-30. A talent was not any kind of coin but a measure of value worth about fifty
kilos (one hundred pounds) of silver.
In this parable the main message is the need to respond to grace by making a
genuine effort right through one’s life. All the gifts of nature and grace which God
has given us should yield a profit. It does not matter how many gifts we have re-
ceived; what matters is our generosity in putting them to good use.
A person’s Christian calling should not lie hidden and barren: it should be out-
going, apostolic and self-sacrificial. “Don’t lose your effectiveness; instead, tram-
ple on your selfishness. You think your life is for yourself? Your life is for God,
for the good of all men, though your love for our Lord. Your buried talent, dig it
up again! Make it yield” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 47).
An ordinary Christian cannot fail to notice that Jesus chose to outline his tea-
ching on response to grace by using the simile of men at work. Here we have a
reminder that the Christian normally lives out his vocation in the context of ordi-
nary, everyday affairs. “There is just one life, made of flesh and spirit. And it is
this life which has to become, in both soul and body, holy and filled with God.
We discover the invisible God in the most visible and material things. There is
no other way. Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else
we shall never find Him” (St. J. Escriva, “Conversations”, 114).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.