By: By Father James King

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Nov. 13

Proverbs 31:10-13,19-20,30-31; Psalm 128:1-2,3,4-5; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30

It isn’t easy to serve God. In fact, with our fallen human nature, it would be impossible for us to serve God without His help. But through His word, and the grace that He freely gives us, the impossible becomes possible. The parable in this Sunday’s Gospel — the Parable of the Talents — is aimed at making us servants and stewards of God.
In this parable a man leaves money with three different servants and then goes off on a journey. Two of the servants invest the money and make more, while one of the servants buries the money. The master returns and rewards the faithful servants and punishes the lazy one. The parable teaches us that all people have been given gifts and talents by God and we are to put them to good use until we come face to face with Him.
But how can we best serve God? How can we learn to become His good servants?
If we look at the parable we see that a good way to learn to serve God is to begin by doing simple things for Him. This is how the master worked with the servants in the parable. He began by giving them only a small amount of money. To the servants who were faithful and put this small amount to good use, the master said, “Since you were faithful in small matters I will give you great responsibilities.” If we learn to serve God in simple things, this will prepare us to serve Him in greater things.

NO EXEMPTIONS
These simple acts of service to God can be things like making our bed, cleaning the house, paying our bills, buying our groceries, or making the extra effort to drive safely. In fact, most of the things we do in life are “little things” — and they can all be done for God.
Even the simple ability to eat and drink comes to us from God and so we can use this ability to serve God. St Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Each of us who are baptized is a member of the body of Christ and so when we are nourishing ourselves we are also nourishing Christ. Just as we feed Christ when we feed the poor, in a similar way, we feed Christ when we feed ourselves for we are members of his body. (We ought to think twice then before we overfeed ourselves for Christ does not want to be overfed in us!)
If you are old and weak and all you can manage to do in the course of the day is to clean the bathroom along with saying your prayers, you can offer this as a service to God. He is humble and He will accept your service. “Well done good and faithful servant,” He will say to you at the end of the day.
Those who through age or illness can only do a little are not exempt from serving God. In the parable the master expected even the servant with only one talent to serve Him. He did not say, “Because you have only one talent you do not have to worry about serving me.” And so if someone can do only very little — let this very little be done for God.
Little acts of service or kindness to our neighbor are particularly pleasing to God, things like writing a letter or sending an e-mail to encourage or comfort a friend, helping prepare a meal at a soup kitchen, smiling at someone or greeting them in a friendly way.
So ask yourself as you look over your life, whom am I serving? Our Lord will return one day and we will have to render an account of how we have used our time, talent, and treasure. Are you ready for that meeting?
Jesus is Lord, and He served us by suffering and dying for our sins. Let us gratefully receive the salvation He offers us, and generously serve Him in return.

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FATHER JAMES KING is a priest of the Diocese of Peoria who is on leave of absence for health reasons. He also is writing a series for The Catholic Post on 10 ways to encounter God in everyday life through Scripture and traditional Catholic devotions.