15 November 2026 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’” Matthew 25:21
On the second-last Sunday of the year the Church asks how we have used what God entrusted to us. A man going on a journey gives his servants talents, “to each according to his ability”. A talent was an enormous sum, about twenty years' wages for a labourer. Even the one-talent servant received a fortune. God is lavish; the question is what we do with his gifts.
Two servants trade and double what they received; their master says, “Well done… enter into the joy of your master.” The reward for faithfulness is not rest but more responsibility, and above all joy, a share in the master's own happiness. The third servant buries his talent because he is afraid: “I knew that you were a harsh man.” His problem is a false image of God. Fear of a harsh master paralysed him. The Church teaches that God's gifts, natural and supernatural, are given to be used for others and for the Kingdom (CCC 1936–1937).
The first reading paints a woman who uses her gifts fully: she works with willing hands, and “she opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy”. That is why this Sunday is the World Day of the Poor. The talents God gives us, our time, money, skills, faith, are meant to reach the poor. Paul adds urgency: the day of the Lord comes “like a thief in the night”, so “let us keep awake and be sober”. The end of the year is a good moment for an honest account.
Theme: “Enter into the joy of your master.”
God is lavish with his gifts; fear buries them, trust multiplies them, and they are meant for the poor.
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” Genesis 2:15
“To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” Matthew 25:15
Apply: List three gifts God has given you.
“Happy is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways. You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.” Psalm 128:1–2
“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’” Matthew 25:21
Apply: Dig up one buried talent this month.
“She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31:20
“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” Matthew 25:40
Apply: Share a meal with a poor person this week.
Every gift is a trust.
Use it with love, and share the Master's joy.
Take-home resolution: Make a year-end account of your talents before Advent.
Dear brothers and sisters, today Jesus tells the story of a master who entrusts his wealth to his servants. To one he gives five talents, to another two, to another one. Do you know how much a talent was? About twenty years' wages. Even the servant with one talent received a fortune.
That is the first lesson: God is generous with everyone. No one in this church is without gifts. Your life, health, intelligence, faith, family, time, money: all of it is entrusted.
Two servants worked hard and doubled what they received. The master's words to them are beautiful: “Well done, good and trustworthy servant… enter into the joy of your master.” God wants to share his joy with us.
But the third servant buried his talent. Why? He says: “I knew that you were a harsh man… so I was afraid.” He had a wrong picture of God. When we think God is harsh and waiting to punish, we become afraid to try, afraid to serve, afraid to love. Fear buries talents. Trust multiplies them.
The first reading shows us a capable woman. She works with willing hands, and “she opens her hand to the poor.” Today is the World Day of the Poor. Our talents are not only for our own success; they are meant to reach the poor, the lonely, the sick.
So let us ask this week: what have I buried? Perhaps a gift of music, teaching, organising, listening, or simply time. Dig it up and use it. And let us open our hands to the poor, not only with money but with our presence. Then one day we too will hear: “Well done… enter into the joy of your master.”
Children, God has given each of you special gifts. Can you name one? Singing, drawing, running, being kind?
Jesus told a story about servants who were given money. Two used it well; one hid it in the ground because he was afraid.
God doesn't want us to hide our gifts. He wants us to use them to help others.
This week, use one of your gifts to make someone happy!
Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God, the constant gladness of being devoted to you, for it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good. Make us faithful with the talents you have given, and open our hands to the poor. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
On the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, the second-to-last Sunday of the Church's year, the readings look toward the end of all things and ask how we should live while we wait. The woman of Proverbs fills ordinary days with faithful work and opens her hand to the poor. Paul tells the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, so the children of light keep awake. In the Gospel a master entrusts his property to his servants and, after a long time, returns to settle accounts. Psalm 128 sings of the blessing on those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
One thread runs through all three: something is entrusted, and there is a time of waiting before the account is given. The capable wife is trusted by her husband (Proverbs 31:11); the Thessalonians have received the faith and must not fall asleep; the servants receive the talents. Fear in the wrong sense makes the third servant bury his gift. The fear of the Lord, in the right sense, makes the gift grow. Since 2017 this Sunday has also been the World Day of the Poor, and the readings fit it well: the gifts entrusted to us are meant to bear fruit, and the first fruit is mercy.
Setting.
Proverbs is a collection of Israel's wisdom, gathered over centuries and placed under the name of Solomon. The book ends with a poem of twenty-two verses (31:10–31) in praise of “a capable wife”. It is an acrostic: in Hebrew each verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet, from aleph to tav. The form itself says that this is praise from A to Z, a complete picture.
The book opened with Wisdom as a woman calling in the streets (Proverbs 1–9) and with the motto “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (1:7). It closes with a woman in whom wisdom has become daily life, and with the same fear of the Lord (31:30). So the poem is both a portrait of a real household and a picture of Wisdom herself living among people.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.” (31:10)
The question does not mean such women cannot be found. It means she is a gift, worth more than anything bought. Proverbs said the same of Wisdom: “She is more precious than jewels” (3:15).
“She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.” (31:20)
Her household is busy and prosperous, yet its door is open. Wisdom in Israel is never only private success; it includes care for the poor, the widow and the stranger.
“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (31:30)
This is the key to the whole poem. Her skill, trade and strength all flow from one root: the fear of the Lord.
“Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.” (31:31)
The city gate was where the elders sat in judgment (v. 23). Her works speak for her in public. Here the poem meets the Gospel: the master too will look at what was done with what was entrusted.
How the Church reads it.
The Church reads this poem first as praise of real women and of the dignity of their work in the home and in society. St John Paul II, in his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (1988), speaks of the “perfect woman” of Proverbs 31:10 as an irreplaceable support and source of spiritual strength for others (n. 30). Christian commentators also read the poem spiritually: St Bede, in a short work on this chapter, saw in the strong woman the Church, the bride of Christ, who clothes and feeds her children (in substance). Placed beside the parable of the talents, she becomes a model of the good servant: faithful in small daily things, generous to the poor, and rooted in the fear of the Lord.
Setting.
This is very likely the oldest writing of the New Testament, sent by Paul from Corinth around AD 50–51 to a young Church he had been forced to leave in haste (Acts 17:1–10). The Thessalonians had questions about the end. In 4:13–18 Paul answered their grief over those who had died. Now he turns to the question of when: “the times and the seasons”.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” (5:2)
A thief does not announce his hour. The image comes from Jesus himself (Matthew 24:43; Luke 12:39). The point is readiness, not fear: the day will surprise the world, not those who are watching.
“When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman” (5:3)
Labour pains are sudden, but they are not meaningless: they announce a birth. The end is both judgment and the birth of a new creation (compare Romans 8:22).
“for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.” (5:5)
To be “children of” something is a Hebrew way of saying that we belong to it. Baptism, which early Christians such as St Justin called “illumination”, makes us children of the day.
“So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober” (5:6)
How the Church reads it.
The Church has never fixed a date for the end, and she warns against those who do. The Catechism teaches that since the Ascension Christ's coming in glory is imminent, even though “it is not for you to know the times or periods” (CCC 673), and that we know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth nor the way the universe will be transformed (CCC 1048). Watchfulness, then, is a way of living each day as children of light. Paul's next verse names its armour: “the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (5:8).
Setting.
This is the second of the three parables that close Jesus' last discourse in Matthew (chapters 24–25). The bridesmaids taught readiness; the talents teach faithful work during the waiting; the judgment of the nations (25:31–46) shows that the work is love for the least. Matthew wrote for a Church that had learned the master might be away “a long time” (v. 19).
A talent was not a coin but a weight of silver, worth about six thousand denarii. Since a denarius was a labourer's daily wage, one talent was the wages of many years, perhaps fifteen to twenty. Even the servant who received “only” one talent received a fortune. Our English word “talent”, meaning a natural gift, comes from this parable. Later Jewish law regarded burying money as the safest way to keep a deposit, so the third servant did what seemed prudent; the parable says that this caution was his failure.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.” (25:15)
The gifts differ, and that is not unjust. Each receives what he can carry, and each is trusted.
“Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” (25:21)
Five talents are called “a few things”. Everything we receive in this life is small compared with what God wants to give.
“so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” (25:25)
The servant's picture of his master (“a harsh man”, v. 24) is false. The false picture produces fear, and fear produces nothing. He hands back the gift unused, as if the relationship were only about not losing.
“For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” (25:29)
This is not a rule of economics. In the life of grace a gift that is used grows, and a gift that is refused withers. Jesus said the same about hearing the word (13:12).
How the Church reads it.
The Fathers read the talents as all of God's gifts: natural abilities, the word of God, the grace of the sacraments. St John Chrysostom, preaching on this parable, said that the talents are whatever ability each one has, whether protection, money, teaching or anything else, and that whoever can help others and does not is like the man who buried his talent (in substance). St Gregory the Great saw in the five talents the gifts of the outward senses, in the two understanding and action, and warned that whoever has received understanding must use it to serve others (in substance). The Catechism teaches that talents are not distributed equally, so that each person needs others, and that these differences call for generosity, kindness and sharing (CCC 1936–1937). On the World Day of the Poor the parable has a plain meaning: what we have received, money, time, skill and faith, is given to be shared, and the next page of Matthew shows where the master expects to find its fruit: “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (25:40).
Is God a “harsh man” who reaps where he did not sow?
No. That is the third servant's picture of his master, and the parable shows it to be false: the master gave lavishly and rewarded generously. He answers the servant on his own terms (“You knew, did you…?”) to show that even his excuse condemns him. Fear of a harsh God is the root of the buried talent; trust in a generous God makes the gift grow.
Does the parable praise making money or charging interest?
Jesus often took his images from ordinary life, here from business, but the subject is the kingdom of heaven. The point is fruitfulness, not finance. The Church's teaching on the just use of goods is found elsewhere, and on this very Sunday she asks us to share with the poor.
Who is the “capable wife” of Proverbs?
First of all a real wife and mother, honoured for wise and generous work. The poem also gathers up the whole book: she is wisdom made visible in a household. Christian readers have also seen in her a picture of the Church, the bride of Christ.
In the Roman calendar this is the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, the last before the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (22 November); Advent begins on 29 November. In these closing weeks the Church turns our eyes to the end of time and the return of Christ. Pope Francis instituted the World Day of the Poor in his apostolic letter Misericordia et Misera (2016) at the close of the Jubilee of Mercy, and set it on this Sunday, just before the feast of the King who will say, “you did it to me”. Many parishes share a meal with the poor, take up a collection or visit those in need. At Mass today the talent of the Gospel can take the shape of a hand opened, like the hand of the woman in Proverbs.