Readings:
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Matthew 25:14-30
Reflection
Nobodies in the Kingdoms of Matthew and Paul
Some time ago I read that many indigenous people were living in a “gifted economy,” having no concept of private ownership of the land. They were simply its custodians for the Great Spirit.
This is not what we find in our scripture for today, with its images of the Kingdom.
Matthew’s parable of the talents concludes with a series of stark images of the second coming, the Grande Assize, and the End of Time. Judgement is made in this realm—Kingdom—where deserving investors are richly rewarded and the unprofitable are stripped of all they have, thrown out as worthless.
In jail again, Paul is writing to the proud citizens of Corinth, and he takes it as an occasion to remind them that God selected them even though “…not many of you are wise by human standards, not many influential…” In fact, they were nobodies, undeserving but nevertheless recipients of the divine foolishness of the cross, upending human values so that all their gifts had clearly come from the Father.
In Matthew, the well-endowed, successful investors of talents received lavish praise and superior accolades, doubling their wealth. Meanwhile, the fearful and poorly endowed were stripped of what they had and thrown out—of no value, even homeless.
But then Paul, writing to the Corinthians, goes out of his way to underline that those standing before God had nothing that was deserving of his reward, because they were truly nobodies. They were chosen to confound the deserving in this gifted economy of grace, “where no human being might be boastful before God,” as all blessings were gifts from Jesus Christ.
Can we ask ourselves:
Do I try to be a somebody in the Kingdom of the Deserving—or a nobody who is “gifted by God,” rejoicing in His topsy-turvy “wisdom of the cross”?
David Peter Folkes is a former Passionist Priest who resigned and married with 2 children and 2 grandchildren living in Chicago. He is mostly involved with refugee resettlement and racial equity issues.