Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:1–10
Gospel: Matthew 25:14–30
Sunday: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Time Entrusted to Us
“Now is the acceptable time,” Saint Paul declares. In the Gospel, a master entrusts his property to his servants and, after a long absence, returns to ask what they have done with it. Both readings speak with urgency, but not with panic. God’s grace has already been given. The question is whether we will receive it fruitfully—whether the life, time, gifts, and opportunities placed in our hands will become an offering of faithful love.
The Epistle
2 Corinthians 6:1–10
1 Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
“At an acceptable time I listened to you.
In a day of salvation I helped you.”Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
3 We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed, 4 but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God: in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, 5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, 6 in pureness, in knowledge, in perseverance, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, 7 in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, 9 as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold—we live, as punished and not killed, 10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
Grace Is Given for Today
Paul’s warning is startling: it is possible to receive the grace of God “in vain.” Grace is never deficient, but we can leave it unanswered. We can postpone repentance, reserve obedience for more convenient circumstances, or admire the life of faith without entering it. Paul answers every such delay with a single word: now.
St. John Chrysostom, the fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople and one of the Church’s greatest preachers, hears in Paul’s words both gift and summons:
“Let us therefore not let slip the favorable opportunity but display a zeal worthy of the grace.”1
Chrysostom does not oppose grace to effort. Our effort is the answering movement made possible by grace itself.
The day of salvation is not merely a date in the future. It is the present moment in which God meets us and makes faithfulness possible. We cannot obey yesterday, and we cannot yet offer tomorrow. We are given today—its duties, its interruptions, its particular neighbor, and its opening for prayer—as the place where grace may bear fruit.
Paul’s own ministry shows what that fruit can look like. His catalogue includes affliction and endurance, fasting and labor, dishonor and good report. He does not measure service by comfort or public approval. The marks of the servant are purity, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, sincere love, truth, and the power of God.
The paradoxes at the end reveal Christian freedom. The apostles are treated as deceivers, yet they are true; as dying, yet they live; as sorrowful, yet they rejoice; as poor, yet they make many rich. Their circumstances do not define the value of their ministry. Possessing nothing, they possess everything because Christ is their life and the grace they share is inexhaustible.
The Gospel
Matthew 25:14–30
14 “For it is like a man going into another country, who called his own servants and entrusted his goods to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his own ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 Immediately he who received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 In the same way, he also who got the two gained another two.
18 But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the earth and hid his lord’s money.
19 “Now after a long time the lord of those servants came, and settled accounts with them. 20 He who received the five talents came and brought another five talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Behold, I have gained another five talents in addition to them.’
21 “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
22 “He also who got the two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Behold, I have gained another two talents in addition to them.’
23 “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
24 “He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you didn’t sow, and gathering where you didn’t scatter. 25 I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours.’
26 “But his lord answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I didn’t sow, and gather where I didn’t scatter. 27 You ought therefore to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest. 28 Take away therefore the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away. 30 Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
Faithful with What Is Given
In the parable, a talent is first of all a very large sum of money. The master places an extraordinary trust in every servant, including the one who receives only a single talent. Their shares differ, but each receives something precious and each is given an opportunity to act.
The first two servants respond “immediately.” They do not compare their allotments, resent the other servant, or wait for certainty. They work with what has been entrusted to them.
St. Theophylact of Ohrid, the eleventh-century Orthodox archbishop and biblical commentator, emphasizes both their promptness and the outward direction of their work:
“See the speed with which he acts, not in the least bit negligent, but immediately trading and doubling what he had received.”2
The gift grows because it is used. Faithfulness is not anxious self-improvement but service that allows what God has given to benefit someone beyond ourselves.
The master gives the same commendation to the servant with two talents as to the servant with five. The reward is not for possessing the largest share. It is for faithfulness.
The third servant’s failure begins in his understanding of the master. “I knew you that you are a hard man,” he says. Fear distorts both the giver and the gift. What was entrusted as an opportunity becomes, in his imagination, a threat. He preserves the money untouched, but sterile safety is not faithfulness. The gift was meant to enter the world and bear fruit.
St. Augustine of Hippo, the influential fourth- and fifth-century bishop and theologian, locates the servant’s failure precisely in that refusal to act:
“He kept the entire sum he had received; but the Lord looked for profit from it.”3
The servant did not squander the talent. Yet mere preservation could not fulfill the purpose for which it had been entrusted.
This servant is not condemned for having less than the others or for failing to produce a spectacular result. He is condemned because fear becomes an excuse for doing nothing. Even the modest act of placing the money with bankers would have acknowledged that the master’s gift was meant to grow.
From Grace to Fruitfulness
Paul and the parable speak to one another. “Now is the day of salvation” answers the temptation to bury what God has given. The acceptable time is not the imagined future when we will have more ability, fewer burdens, or complete confidence. It is the life already in our hands.
Our entrusted goods include more than obvious abilities. They include attention, memory, health, material resources, relationships, suffering patiently borne, truth learned, forgiveness received, and the hours of an ordinary day. None belongs to us absolutely. All can be offered back to God by becoming love, service, beauty, mercy, prayer, or truth in the lives of others.
Chrysostom therefore refuses the excuse that one person’s gift is too small to matter:
“Let no man say, I have but one talent, and can do nothing; for you can even by one approve yourself.”4
God does not ask us to possess another person’s gifts. He asks us to make faithful use of the gift actually placed in our hands.
The faithful servants finally enter “the joy” of their lord. That is the destination of Christian stewardship. God does not invite us into anxious calculation but into his own joy. Grace calls for effort, yet the effort itself is cooperation with a gift already given. As Paul says, we are “working together” with God.
We need not envy another person’s five talents or despise the one talent placed in our own hands. We need only refuse to bury it. Today is the acceptable time: to begin, to offer what we have, and to trust that God can make faithful service fruitful.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible.
1 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 12 on Second Corinthians, on 2 Corinthians 6:1–2.
2 St. Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Matthew, on Matthew 25:19.
3 St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 44 on the New Testament.
4 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 78 on Matthew.