November 17 33d Sunday in Ordinary time Mt.25//14-30

Background

Like the parable of last Sunday this one has but a single point. Indeed the point is the same: don’t expect God to be tolerant if you don’t use your abilities because other people have more abilities than you. Beyond that point allegories which try to assign explanations of the details of the story risk obscuring the thrust of the parable, the rifle shot ringing out in the night to surprise, shock, and awaken us and to tell us that excuses based on false and passive aggressive humility will cut no ice with God, at all, at all.

Story

Perhaps I will be excused if I return to the hero of last week’s story, the young basketball player from UNC. He is now thirty three years old, earns tons of money every year, is famous all over the world, and is probably the best basketball player who ever lived. You’d think he’d relax and enjoy life, wouldn’t you? Hasn’t he earned a little rest? Why keep all up the work, endure the exhausting season, put up with idiot sports writers? What’s the point of it all? So he comes to training camp nine pounds lighter so his legs won’t grow weary at the end of the season. He does not tell Phil Jackson that he’s done enough already all right and that the coach has to be satisfied with the same conditioning as last year. Rather he intends to use his talents as long as he can and as best as he can. Naturally he expects all the other players on his aging team to do the same thing, even if they are not as talented as he is.