A Reflection on the Parable of the Talents

"The attendance at our daily Mundelein Seminary on Labor Day weekend was sparse. Many of the students had gone home while others were on a special tour of Chicago churches. The celebrant and preacher for the Sunday Mass was Fr. Robert Schoenstene, our veteran Old Testament professor. Fr. Schoenstene offered the best interpretation I've ever heard of a particularly puzzling parable of the Lord, and I wanted to make sure his reading got a wider audience.

"The parable in question is the one concerning the rich man who gives talents to three of his servants and then sets out on a journey. Upon his return, he assesses the situation and discovers that the servant to whom he had given five talents had invested them fruitfully and that the servant to whom he had given three talents had done the same. But he finds, to his chagrin, that the slave to whom he had entrusted one talent had simply buried the wealth and had garnered neither gain nor interest. Angered, he orders that the one talent be taken from the timid servant and given to the servant who had invested most boldly. And then comes the devastating moral lesson: 'For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.'"

In a recent commentary, Father Robert Barron offered Father Schoenstene's reflection on this parable and its meaning vis-à-vis the mercy God bestows on each of us.

To access Father Barron’s complete post, please visit:

The Boston Pilot: Very Rev. Robert Barron: The Parable of the Talents (27 SEP 14)