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So it seems today that several of us have just a little bit of a cold or congestion or whatever, and I see that James didn't make it today. James and—and so today's gospel, the one from the Gospel of St. Matthew, is quite a remarkable gospel. And one of the things that we see through the feast days of the Holy Church and through its teachings and through its gospels, there are many, many gifts that God gives us. He speaks to us and gives us gifts of love and compassion and so on, and He shines—we are encouraged greatly by the great feasts of the Church and how He reveals Himself in such a remarkable way. And today, while He certainly is giving gifts—He always gives gifts—but today the gospel for today is a kind of accounting. Namely, God has given the gifts, and the question is: what do we do with these gifts? Do we receive them and do we multiply them?
And so the gospel again, He says, "For the kingdom of heaven," or in the Gospel of St. Luke, "the kingdom of God, is like a man traveling into a far country." And so we speak, I think, often about the kingdom of God and how the kingdom of God is this eternal power that radiates like the sun into our lives. And so the kingdom, the kingly power of God, the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, radiates into our lives. And so we have—so this whole idea of traveling into a far country—and in a sense, compared to the kingdom of God which has been prepared for us, this is a far country. It's far away from the kingdom of God. And so the gospel is speaking to us, obviously. It's not something out there, but it's speaking directly to our hearts and minds.
And it goes on and says that the Savior called His servants and delivered His goods to them. And so we have been given gifts. And the question of course is what do we do with them? And a person might say, "Well, what gifts did we get? Were we given gold or were we given, you know, luxury, or what gifts were we given?" And I think that the gifts of course are the ability to love, for example, the ability to be in love, to be deeply sympathetic with those who are suffering around us. And that sympathy often raises people out of their struggles and so on. And He gives us—often we have resources that we can share with the poor. There are many, many gifts. We have the gift even of patience and kindness and steadfastness in the times of temptation. All of these are gifts and they are given to us freely from God. And so we've all received gifts.
And so it goes on. So he called his servants and delivered his goods to them. "To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability. And immediately he went on a journey." So this is interesting because not only he gives the gifts on the one hand, but then he steps back. Now he is accessible to us obviously through the divine services and the mysteries of the Holy Church, and of course, participation in His Body and Blood through Holy Communion. But nevertheless, in some way, He has stepped back, and the question is what are we going to do with the gifts that He has given us?
And so He says that then he that had received five talents went and traded with the same and made another five talents. But he that had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his lord's money. Now a talent in ancient times is—you know, I looked it up, it's not entirely clear what it was, but it was a lot of money. Some people say it was like a thousand dollars. And so he's using this very material analogy, namely, we have a talent, it's given to us, and this talent—in the—it seems like it's in the form of money. But the reality is what's behind it is he's talking about once again the gifts of love and compassion and kindness and steadfastness and honesty and justice and so on. All of these things. And so some people use these talents. And by using the talents, the love that they have grows, the generosity expands, and God adds to that which we have been given because we are investing those gifts that we have been given in a godly way and a way of faith. And so the kingly power of God in us grows in us and it becomes brighter and shines more fully. And it affects, of course, those around us.
And we know this. Don't we know how in our relationships—I'm going to use a little silly little analogy here. We've been noticing—we've been feeding birds, you know, and there's these two pigeons that show up. And I don't know a lot about birds, but the two big pigeons—one's kind of white and the other is grey—and they show up and they become comfortable with us coming out on the porch and so on. They don't fly away. All the rest of the birds fly away. And you know, every day, a couple of times a day, the two of them show up. And you know, you see them, and so I decided to look up about pigeons. What about pigeons? And it turns out that pigeons mate for life, just like swans and eagles and so on, which is an amazing thing. And there they are. I looked—I said to my dear wife, I said, "You know, I don't see them arguing. I don't see them pecking at each other. I don't see them fighting. They kind of come in, you know, one—I guess he might be the male—but one lands first and the other one lands second, and they fly away together." And it's a beautiful thing to see. And the thing is, is that in our own relationships, you know, we are stewards of God's love and grace. And it's so easy to have something come up that irritates us and, you know, causes us to even, you know, have anger and frustration, and then we act on that anger and frustration, and of course, anyone around us becomes upset. And it's really fascinating because it's totally completely counterintuitive. I mean, the idea that our frustration and anger with one who is, you know, maybe it's our husband or our wife or our children, that our frustration and anger is going to result in calm, loving dispositions and lead to peace and to love and tranquility—it's actually going to make the situation much worse. To the point where people respond in anger and then there's another response and it builds and can even lead to terrible physical assaults.
And so while these five talents that our Lord is talking about, you know, they sound like hard cash, the fact is, He's talking about spiritual gifts that we have been given. And the one who had the five talents used his spiritual gifts and he was given five more, and the one that had the two used his spiritual gifts and he was given more. But the one who hid his gift in the ground was condemned. He was cast out, cast out of the kingdom of heaven, and to a life of darkness and anguish.
And here we are, brothers and sisters in Christ our God, are we going to take the gifts that God gave us? Or maybe are we going to suddenly shake our heads and look at ourselves and say, "You know, I've changed. I used to be able to be calm, I used to be able to be loving, I used to be able to be generous, and now I've become drawn into myself." And maybe we can analyze and look at our own inner life a bit and try to discern whether or not we've already broken away from or departed from these remarkable gifts that God has given us, so that we can return. And not be such as the person who received the one talent and hid it in the ground and then was cast out because of this.
So on this day, I think in light of this beautiful gospel, and in the presence of the cross of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, who died for us, which is the greatest gift that mankind has ever received—so He died for us and He was raised again in order to bestow upon us the gifts, spiritual gifts. And they're very simple. They're very, very simple. We can find them listed in our prayer books and so on. And we know that faith and hope and love and charity and so on and kindness and patience and all of these things are gifts. And they're multiplied. And that's a fact. I think that anyone who has tried to—let's say at some point in your life say, "You know, I've really just got to be kind. I've got to be kind. I'm going to practice being kind." And if you do it for a while, you just discover your heart begins to expand, and that kindness begins to grow, and it can grow to a point where it can literally change the disposition of those around us. And this is what we need to do. We need to change our lives. And we need to take the spiritual gifts that God has given us, and which—the holy prayers. We say our prayers every morning and evening, and the gifts that God has given us are there, and we need to take those gifts and multiply them. So that at the end of our lives the light of Christ shines upon us and carries us into the heavenly abodes.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
