Nothing but Everything

Saturday of the 21^st Week in Ordinary Time – Year II

1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 25:14-30

I know today’s gospel is popular, and I do want to talk about it, but, as this is Saturday and we are especially remembering the Virgin Mary, let’s begin by taking St. Paul up on his offer to, as he says, “consider your own calling.”

What he says is as true now as when he first said it. Who are we, compared to those the world sees as wise, noble, and strong? By human standards, very little. Mary is a splendid example, the best in purely human terms. Think of the great ones of her time: Tiberius Caesar, Emperor; Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea; Herod, tetrarch of Galilee; Annas and Caiaphas, high priests of the Jews. God could have sent His Word to any of them. Instead, He chose a lowly young Jewess, Mary of Nazareth.

In terms of the gospel parable, if Mary was one of the servants, how many talents would we give her? Again, in worldly terms, what could she do with it anyway? Young, female, betrothed but not living with her husband; who was more powerless or seemed less able than she? Who had more reason to be afraid to do anything?

But as we know, God doesn’t see as the world sees. Even if Mary was given a fraction of a talent, just enough to buy her daily bread, look how she returned the investment to her Master: Count as a coin each soul brought to Christ thanks to her consent to be his mother; a hundred talents worth of gold wouldn’t cover it! No wonder Mary proclaimed so gladly how much her spirit rejoiced in God, her Savior. Why shouldn’t she boast in the Lord? As St. Paul knew, none could be more powerful or able than she within whose womb dwelled the very wisdom, righteousness, and redemption of God.

This is why we turn to her, why Mary is, as the poet William Wordsworth once said, “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.” Where she has gone, Christ leads us. No matter what God has given us, all that matters is what we make of it; what we return to our Master purely out of love for Him. We may not lead billions to Christ, but remember, the master rewarded the servant with two talents exactly as he did the one with five.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is, for all ages, the personification of the great paradox of our faith: That in weakness lies the greatest strength, that those considered fools are the truly wise, and that counting for nothing to the earthly is the only way to be the one thing that really matters to the heavenly: A person chosen by God, graced by Him, and unafraid to do whatever He tells us.

Mary, Virgin most powerful, pray for us.

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