A Different Viewpoint of the Parable of the Talents

Homily for Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

The usual interpretations of the parable of the talents have recently been challenged by scholars who use insights from social science criticism. Taking the stance of a peasant, and placing our sympathies with the third slave, not with the master, yields a very different story in contrast to capitalist mores. Current society’s view of wealth is something that can be increased by hard work or investment; the world of the parable is, rather, one of limited good. In such a culture it is thought that there is only so much wealth; any increase to one person takes away from another. Peasants, the usual audience of Jesus’ parables, worked to satisfy the needs of their families, not to amass unlimited wealth. From this perspective, the man who expects his money to be increased is the wicked one, unfettered in his greed. Moreover, the master of this parable is not observant of the Torah as is evident in verse twenty-seven in which the master invokes the notion of usury which was forbidden in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

A completely different interpretation of this parable appears in the writing of a Church Father known as Eusebius. What is evident from Eusebius’s commentary is that he cannot understand how the first servant is approved and the third servant who hid the talent is the wicked one.

In our time, the usual interpretation of this parable uses the word talent to mean any of the many gifts that we have been given by God. However, we must remember that the word talent – or “talenton” in Greek – denotes a measure of weight varying from fifty-eight to eighty pounds or a unit of coinage whose value differed considerably in various times and places depending upon the metal involved which might be gold, silver, or copper.

Given the reality of our world, where rich people and rich nations become increasingly more wealthy from the investments of international corporations that make huge profits from exploited and underpaid workers in sweatshops, perhaps we need to look at this parable from the perspective of Eusebius. It must also be pointed out that this interpretation stands up to the values about which St. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians in today’s first reading. “Aspire to live a tranquil life, mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands.”