“Much will be expected of the one
who is entrusted with much.”
Sounds a bit like the motto for Spiderman!
Remember that? Do you watch Spiderman at all?
The motto is: “With great power comes great responsibility.
I think he stole that from scripture!
That motto resonates for these comic movies
because it resonates with the human spirit.
It makes abundant sense.
If you are given much, much is expected of you.
You do not need to be a bible scholar to understand it.
That is called a reasonable expectation.
And it resonates with the human spirit of fairness;
that if you’ve received a lot then you’re expected to do a lot
whether that be treasure, or money,
or whether it be responsibility as in power and position.
If you have a lot of power then there is an expectation
that you are going to use that power to serve others;
not to enrich yourself and to do things for yourself.
That is why when politicians and people in power
serve themselves it upsets us
because it is against common sense and goodness;
the fairness valve inside of us goes off and
our sense of what is right gets violated.
In today’s scripture, Jesus pushes this to the limit.
It is a hard reading to hear;
whether you get beaten lightly or get beaten a lot.
There is a lot of beating going on here. Right?
And expectations are high in what we are expected to do
with what we have been given.
The context as I always say is super important with this scripture passage.
And Jesus is talking to his disciples and the leaders.
Even Peter is caught off guard;
He says, “Is this for us or is it for everybody else?”
You can almost hear him saying,
“We have left everything.
We have given up everything.
We are here!
What more do you want from us?”
But Jesus is saying God wants everything.
And that is hard for us to hear.
God wants it all.
But we also need to understand the theology behind it;
that God gives us everything;
and he wants us to give back everything to him.
And here is how the rule works;
actually, I’m not quite sure why it works but it does.
The more of the treasure that we accumulate and give away,
the more it seems to multiply.
This seems to also work for love.
The more love that we get and give away,
the more you get back in return.
On the other hand, if you hold onto your love stingily
and you say, “You have to love me, it is all about me,
you need to love me and
you do not give that love away to anyone else
then slowly that love gets smaller and smaller.”
Not sure why it is that way
but in my experience, that is the way it works.
Share and it multiplies.
Hold onto it and it diminishes.
If we feel love and share that love abundantly with other people,
pass it on then we get more love in return.
I do not quite know how that works but that is the way it works.
Now it is true also of treasure.
It is harder to do because we give stuff away
and we have to let it go.
It’s like “am I really going to have enough?”
And the more we give away,
the more we seem to get back and
we have this virtuous circle of giving.
It is also true of our time.
That is our most precious commodity.
We sometimes think our possessions and our money
are the most precious things but really, if you think about it,
time is our most precious because it is so limited.
We all get the same each day.
There is no abundance of time.
But how we spend our time with others;
how we give our time away is super important.
If we treasure it, then we give it to those who need it.
Now this is what the Lord is asking us to do
and Pope Francis goes on about this time and time again;
he wants us to be a Church of the poor.
He wants us to be those who go out to those
who are the poorest of the poor and to identify with them.
In my experience, I don’t know if this is true for you,
the most generous people I know
are those who are most often the poorest.
Those who have been in Nicaragua or in Tijuana will notice this.
I know it from having gone to Nicaragua so often
that they have so little and yet are so generous
with what little they have.
And those who were in Tijuana recently will know that same thing;
they have so little and yet they give whatever they have
to anyone who comes, even the missionaries.
It is greatly humbling.
It is because they are so close;
either they are the poor themselves
or those who are close to the poor have that same generosity.
And the question is how do we keep close to the poor
so that we have a generous heart?
Not all of us can go to Tijuana or Nicaragua and serve.
I understand that.
But we can all open our minds and our hearts to the poor.
We can always open our hearts to their plight
and to listen to their stories;
and hear in those stories a need that we possibly can fulfill.
The more we give away,
the more in fact we get back in return
especially when it comes to love and affection.
And that is how this discipleship works;
that is how we are called to do it.
And it is hard.
We have been given great responsibility.
We really have.
But a lot is expected of us
because we have been given a lot;
because we have been blessed with so much,
the Lord is expecting us to pass it on willfully to others;
to give away what he has given to us.
This week as we think it through;
what do we think we have been blessed by;
all the gifts that we have are from God
whether it be time, or love, or possessions.
How can we give that away?
In what way can we stay close to the poor or those in need
and hear their call and share it;
whether it be our time;
whether it be our talent;
or whether it be our treasure.
We are called to share what we have
so that all have enough.
“Much will be expected of the one
who is entrusted with much.”
