Thirty-Third SUNDAY of ORDINARY TIME -- Year A

First: Pr 31:10-13. 19-20. 30-31 Second: 1 Th 5:1-6, Gospel: Mt 25:14-30

THEME of the READINGS

To work to bear fruit in the kingdom of God; this sentence sums up the liturgy of this Sunday. To allow the talents one has received to bear fruit, whatever their number, to fulfill the task which we shall have to account for later (Gospel). To work to do good in fear of God, like the good and industrious woman in the book of Proverbs (First Reading). To work, not to sleep, as we are children of the day and light (a time in which one can work), and not of the night or of darkness (Second Reading).

DOCTrinal MESSAGE

The spirituality of work. Work is not divine punishment, nor a pressing activity to ensure one's survival, but a gift of God in order for us to fulfill ourselves in the fullness of our humanity. Work is not optional either, but a duty and a right, a law inscribed by God in our certificate as human beings and baptized persons. The Christian works in the likeness of God and Jesus Christ, who are always working (Jn 5:17). About Jesus, the Second Vatican Council tells us that, "He worked with a man's hands." Hence work indicates the human being's superiority and dominion over creation, and the subordination of creation to the material and spiritual well-being of humanity. It is a sin against humanity to put creation before the person, though people must adopt a responsible attitude towards creation, bearing in mind the integral good of present and future human generations. If work is a gift, so are the instruments (qualities, skills, aptitudes, circumstances, relations...) that God provides to each person to carry out that work. The spirituality of work enables us to see life as a mission, as the time measured out by God to fulfill the tasks that he has entrusted to us.

The dimensions of work. There is the believing dimension of work: I work because I believe. I believe that God has given me a job to perform in order to live; I especially believe in the redeeming value of work, together with the mystery of Christ the Redeemer. Another dimension is the psychological one: work is the journey of the development of one's aptitudes and qualities, it is a journey of gratification after a job well done, in essence it is a journey of personal fulfillment. The ethical dimension cannot be missing. In other words, it is voluntary, and if possible joyful submission to the "natural" law of work, to having to use all our "talents" to better serve society and our fellow human beings, without any distinction based on creed or race. Work is not only ability and fatigue; before all else it is the source of virtue and a journey towards holiness. Through work, the human spirit is increasingly perfected, it opens us up to divine providence which does not cease to be at work in the world, it recognizes its competence and at the same time its limitation and smallness before the greatness of the work of God the Creator and of Jesus Christ the Redeemer.

PASTORal SUGGESTIONS

Enemy of laziness. All people, especially Christians, must be enemies of laziness. Here we mean laziness in the sense of not doing what one is obliged to do, as voluntary and irresponsible wasting of time, as letting oneself be led by one's inclination towards inactivity, "resting because one is tired of having rested." A legitimate rest, which everyone must seek, is one thing, while laziness is another, and everyone must try to reject it with determination. Legitimate rest is the will of God, laziness is a vice. Legitimate rest restores one's strength, depleted by work; laziness only increases our tendency towards laziness. There are many domains in which we can fall prey to laziness: students especially in their school work, with the result that they do not take their exams or fail them, consequently displeasing their parents; the members of a family by not being eager to do housework, which each member performs according to an explicit or implicit schedule within a given family; officials and professionals, in their professional work: arriving at work late, doing the least possible and taking the longest possible time, "illegal" excuses not to go to the office on a given day ...

To work to help and share. One works first of all to share with one's family the pay that one receives or the goods that are produced. Also, one may share with and help society, especially the neediest and those that have been abandoned by social institutions. Working by studying, by educating oneself, by giving catechesis or other courses to share one's faith is another example (something which parents, the educators of children and adolescents, cannot forego without causing detriment to the children ...). We can also work in the parish, which is the family of all those who belong to it, and in which everyone is necessary and has a task to perform. We can work on large and small projects, our own or other people's, to change our environment for the better through a joint and constant effort to achieve the desired level of moral and spiritual ecology. We can work to seek to create sources of employment for the many young people that cannot find, but would like to have access to, their first job.

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOA.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].