Gospel Reflection on Matthew 25:14-30 with Wyatt Hettel

In this week’s Gospel, we hear a parable in which three workers are given a varying amount of talents. The one who has been given five talents by the master, comes back with five more, the one with two talents, comes back with two more, but the one with one talent went on to bury it in the ground, and he came back with nothing. The master was understandably upset, and he rebukes the last one by saying, “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.”


The English word talent comes from the Latin word talentum, which refers to a worker’s wages or sum of money.  In this parable, we see the master giving his three servants differing amounts of money, only for the one with the smallest amount to not double what he has been given. Out of fear of his master, he buried the talent and earned nothing in return. Everything that we have and will ever have in life is given to us by God. Our talents, being our unique and natural skills, are given to us by God, and it is our duty as his children to use them to glorify him. Regardless of how much we are given, we are called to use our talents out of our love of God and our neighbor. When the time comes when we are paralyzed by fear, like the third servant, we must call upon the love of the Lord so that we may multiply the gifts that he has given us. We are constantly called to mirror the life of Christ, and it is evident that Jesus gave all he had, including his own life, for those he loved. Throughout the difficult times in my life, the image of the cross is something I look to when I am in need of strength and freedom from the bonds of fear. Jesus’ suffering on the cross is the perfect example of constantly giving all that we have in the service of God and our neighbors.