Daily Bible Devotional (Nov 20, 2024)

Our Talents are a Form of Praise

There is a shift that needs to happen in the arena of apologetics. For so long the focus was on answering directly the stated objections of skeptics about specific issues of the Faith. Bible along? Disprove it using the Bible. Atheism? Aquinas’s 5 Ways. Resurrection? Empty tomb. The shift that needs to happen, though, is not about the content of the evidence. The shift needs to be less reactive and more proactive. Instead of responding to the surface-level objection, apologetics needs to anticipate and decipher the more fundamental, deeper objection that lies beneath. This takes some creativity in how one looks at the articles of the faith and one’s approach to the Bible. 

Even when there is not a stated connection between the first reading, the responsorial Psalm and the Gospel, I think it a fruitful spiritual practice to try to find some thread that unites them as much as possible. For today’s reading, it seem like the first reading, continuing from Revelation, and the Psalm are building towards a theme of praise. However, the Gospel from Luke 19:11-28 seems to veer in another direction entirely. 

While Catholics can certainly cite numerous Bible verses speaking to the relationship between faith and works, we also need to find examples that speak to this, and other controversial elements of the Faith, in a unique way. These collection readings to just that. 

In the first reading and Psalm, both readings express the presence, beauty and importance of praise, both on earth as it is in heaven. Then, Jesus tells the parable of the talents. The one who does not use his talent is treated harshly, being called “wicked” by the king. This is because these works that the servants are commit, or fail to, are meant to build up the kingdom (think how the coins are multiplied in various ways). Using the talents given to us and multiplying the treasury (which is the Church's “storeroom” of grace received from Christ) are acts of praise. The first two readings are showing us the importance of praise, the Gospel is showing us how to participate in it. 

Let us make sure we don’t store ours away.