So many people who claim to have read the Bible, but have only read excerpts claim that the “God of the Old Testament” is angry, vengeful, and only cares about judgement.

They turn around and think his Son showed up two thousand years ago and flipped the script. Jesus was entirely focused on forgiveness, mercy, and love.

As if the two aren’t the same God…

We are “Blessing Blind.”

Virtually all of us. We have so much—and could do so much for others.

If we weren’t so “blessing blind.”

My mother grew up at the lowest end of rural Wisconsin’s financial spectrum. My maternal grandparents used an outhouse into the eighties! When you ask mom about it, she’ll just shrug her shoulders and say, “We didn’t no any different.”

Why?

In today’s gospel, we hear the parable of the talents.

During Jesus’ life – a talent meant a very large sum of money – about 20 years’ worth of wages - so let’s say each talent would be worth about $1 million today. 

The English meaning of talent which we are now accustomed to is derived from this parable and first meant a gift from God.

I remember being a wee bit afraid of Santa Claus as a child. Not the breaking and entering, mind you. That was more than okay. (As a kid, anyone is welcome if they bring me Baba Fett’s ship and some GI Joes.) It was that I’d heard he had a list of all the good kids—and all the bad ones—and no one ever told me precisely where he drew the line.

I think we, as Catholics, sometimes struggle with the same ambiguity. Will we find ourselves on the eternal good list or the eternal bad list?

Last weekend, Amanda Vernon visited our parish to do a few songs at each Mass before leading a concert with adoration Sunday night. It was a blessed event and I’d like to thank everyone who came out.

During the night, Amanda spoke quite a bit about giving our chaos to the Lord. And it got me thinking…

Chaos almost always comes with blessing.

Today’s gospel is one of my favorites – it is one of Jesus’ most memorable and most important teachings

In the business world I learned how to develop an elevator speech, which is a quick speech that you can give if you bump into someone and have to give them a quick sales pitch

If a stranger asked me to summarize the Bible teachings in 15 seconds, I would say that God created men and women in his image and told them what they must do be happy on earth and to live forever in heaven – and the 2 primary rules are to love God and love your neighbor. If interested, that 15 second talk could lead to a lot of questions and deeper discussion.

At first listen, one might be tempted to hear this weekend’s Gospel (Mt. 22:34-40) and conclude that Jesus tossed out the ten commandments and replaced them with love (love of God and love of neighbor).

“I told you man! Jesus wiped out all the old restrictions and now we can do whatever we want as long as we say we are his!”

Not so fast, hippie.

First Communion is always a joyous celebration in each parish.

In one parish a family was preparing for the First Communion of their son Kevin. At the time it was the tradition that boys receiving their First Communion all dress in white suits, and for girls to wear a white dress. So, Kevin’s parents took him shopping to find his white suit for his First Communion.

Even though Kevin was only seven years old, he had his own ideas about what it meant to dress formally. His idea of getting dressed up was wearing a clean tee shirt and a pair of jeans without any holes. (Since I’ve been retired, I find that I think a lot like Kevin about what constitutes dressing up).

In this week’s Gospel, the Lord reminds us there is one God.

Why would he need to do this? Well, there were “gods” all over the place. In fact, the coin Jesus is shown claimed the emperor was the son of god.

Emperors and kings were regularly considered divine. This was often a result of their success in military conflicts, territorial expansion, or it was the result of self-declaration (often accompanied by fear of death if contradicted).

But the Lord IS God, not A god among many.

This weekend’s Gospel is the second consecutive Gospel where Jesus breaks out of the box many Catholics (as well as other Christian denominations) put him in.

They tend to believe God only got upset in the Old Testament. He was (insert thunder sound effect) the God of Judgement!

Then, Jesus came along and told his Dad to “chill out.” It’s all about love. (Sure. He flipped some tables, but he was probably having a rough day.)

So. Many. Problems. With. This.

In chapter 4 of Philippians, we find one of the most beautiful and reassuring excerpts found anywhere in the Bible. I’d like to highlight it here so you don’t miss it as it is this weekend’s second reading.

“Brothers and sisters: have no anxiety at all.”

Ha! Those words obviously weren’t writen in 2023! No anxiety? How is that even possible?!

“...by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.”

In Matthew 21, Jesus gives the example of two sons. The first refuses to serve his father, but ends up changing his mind and doing what his father asked. The second quickly agrees to his father’s request, but then does nothing. The Gospel goes on to make clear that the first was the one to do his father’s will.

What does this mean?

Like any intelligent being, God cares more about what you do than what you say.

Who would you rather have as an employee? The one who says, “You got it, boss!” then, does nothing. Or the one who seems hesitant, but comes around and gets the job done?