The parable of the talents in the Gospel of Matthew also addresses the theme of growth and fruitfulness, but from a different perspective. A master goes away on a long journey, entrusting different portions of his fortune to three servants until his return. Two of the three invest the money and double it. The third buries his treasure and reaps no profit for his master. When the master returns, he praises the first two servants for their faithfulness. He condemns the third for wasting the opportunity before him (Matthew 25:14-30).
So what is the fruit in the first parable? What are these talents in the second? There seem to be two common candidates we could explore for these. The first is that of personal holiness, and the second is the making of new converts to the faith. Which would you say you prefer? Christians have faced this question throughout history. What is more important? Should I focus more on personal godliness, or should I focus more on leading others to Jesus? Should
We all nurture hopes of various kinds. We hope to live a long and productive life. We hope our children and grandchildren will grow into good people who will contribute to society. We hope for world peace and prosperity. These are all good things, but we can’t necessarily count on them to come to pass. They may or may not.
So what can we hope for that will never disappoint us? St. Augustine once wrote, “The Lord’s resurrection is our hope” (Sermon 261:1). Placing our hope in Jesus’ rising from the dead is a sure bet. In fact, it’s something we can stake our lives on. That’s because the hope St. Augustine is talking about is different from Joe’s hope that he’ll win the lottery. While Joe has no idea whether he’ll ever win, we know that everyone who believes that Jesus has been raised from the dead will be saved (Romans 10:9). So we’re not just wishing something good will happen; we are confident it will!
<p>In the Book of Revelation, St. John recounts a vision of heaven God had given him. In that vision, he sees a great throne covered in precious stones and surr
We Can Be Witnesses to the Power of the Resurrection
In 1918, a young German intellectual named Edith Stein was invited to spend a month in the city of Göttingen with her recently widowed friend, Anne Reinach. Edith had studied philosophy under Anne’s husband, Adolph, and Anne had asked Edith to help get her husband’s papers in order. Although eager to go, Edith was nervous. In what state of mind would she find this grieving widow?
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Comment | Posted Apr 03, 2021
On February 25, 1954, a young man fleeing a botched robbery in Paris panicked and shot wildly. He killed a policeman and seriously wounded a bystander. The would-be thief was arrested, condemned to death by guillotine, and confined in La Santé maximum-security prison. An atheist when he entered, he experienced a conversion so profound that, on the night before his execution, he wrote, “My head will fall glorious ignominy with heaven for its prize! I am happy.” The lost soul of Jacques Fesch had been salvaged in prison by Christ. More »