Inequality is from God
16th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Corinthians 6:1-10; Matthew 25:14-30
According to the story told by Lord Jesus Christ, a master gave five talents to one of his servants, two talents to another, and only one talent to the third. It seems that the one who was entrusted with the most could acquire the most... Although, of course, the first one could have buried it—and therefore could have gained nothing.
I happened to hear among believing Christians a certain dissatisfaction; the following opinion was expressed: For God to be fair, He had to gift everyone equally — all people! If everyone had all the talents, so that no one could surpass his neighbour, then it would be fair.
And so I contemplated: What if we all had writing talents, we could all be good singers, musicians, orators, etc. — who would read and listen to us then?
No, it is better that different people have different abilities.
In fact, we all have several abilities, and however many of them we have developed is how many we have. Some people, however, are lazy, so God has to endow these talents to people who work diligently and develop their talents. People are created with freedom, with the will to develop, so inevitably there will be differences; people will be gifted unequally.
Our trouble is not that we have different talents and not an equal number of them, but that some people do not use them for good or do not develop them at all. I have also had the opportunity to hear: I am an ordinary farmer, so I don't need special talents.
Certainly, a farmer might not need a singing talent, but it is useful for him to be able to perform various skilled tasks. It is also good for a farmer to learn to organize his farm on an industrial-commercial basis — therefore, it is good for a farmer to develop his talent for work and for developing different sectors of his farm.
And it is an unchangeable truth that a person with different abilities, in different professions, needs to work hard and develop his talent — then each of us will grow in his field. A doctor needs not only to receive patients, but also to read, learn how other doctors and professors treat people, what new means and medicines are being invented. If the doctor does not do this, then he gradually turns into a craftsman in his profession, and his activity can benefit few people.
Even the priest — he cannot only formally perform the rites of the Divine Service, but must constantly grow in the knowledge of God's will and in the knowledge of human life. In order for his sermon to be alive, the priest must read literature from various fields of knowledge, not only from theology (about new research into space, archeology, about achievements and development in physics, biology, medicine). He has long-established truths, and new discoveries and researches in various fields of human knowledge to pass through the light of the Gospel and present them to the faithful in sermons, lectures, and teaching religion.
The faithful must be aware that, beyond all the work of the priest that is accessible to knowing, he must bear in his soul problems and human secrets. Here are some brief examples, without mentioning names or places.
a) Doctors discovered that a 40-year-old man has incurable cancer, and the family asks the priest to persuade him to sign over all his property to his wife, because what can she do with two small children on the farm?—She needs to be able to sell it.
b) A man comes to a priest at 2 o'clock in the morning: “Father, come and help me, because my wife wanted to kill me with an ax!”
c) What and how to comfort parents who have lost their only son in an accident?
d) How to comfort a woman who is left with two young children?
In no textbook can one find any ready answer; the priest, enlightened by the light of Christ, must find answers to burning questions and problems in life through prayer and understanding of reality. The community of the faithful should appreciate that there are certain people who are called by God to be engaged in their affairs at all times of their lives.
People should also be understanding of the work of a doctor, because not everything can be measured by material reward. People of different professions in their daily work try to reveal not only the knowledge of the past, but also strive to understand the current state in order to find solutions to various life problems in new circumstances. They too rarely have ready answers for everything, for only a lazy servant can be satisfied with what was achieved 50 years ago.
The Apostle Paul advises us “not to receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Corinthians 6:1). When we try to honestly follow God’s instructions, in this case expressed through the Lord’s parable, we will never use God’s gifts—abilities and talents from God—in vain.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
