Today, Jesus tells us another parable of judgment. We are approaching the Advent season, and therefore, the end of the liturgical year is near.

By giving us life, God has also provided us with the possibility - smaller or greater - for personal, ethical, and religious development. It doesn't matter if one has much or little; what matters is that what we have received has yielded some profit. The man in our parable, who hides his talent for fear of the master, has not known how to take risks: “But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's Money” (Mt 25:18). Maybe the core of the parable is this: we must conceive a God that motivates us to go beyond ourselves, who encourages us to live freely for the Kingdom of God.

The word 'talent' in this parable - which is nothing more than a weight denoting about 30 Kg of silver - has become so influential that it is even used in popular language to refer to a person's abilities. But the parable does not exclude that the talents God has given us are not only our possibilities but also our limitations. What we are and what we have, that is the material with which God wants to make a new reality of us.

The phrase “For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Mt 25:29), is not, naturally, a maxim to encourage consumption, but can only be understood in terms of love and generosity. Indeed, if we respond to God's gifts by trusting in His help, then we will experience that it is actually Him who is paying the interest on the investment: “In the stories of so many simple, kindly folk whom faith has made good, we see after all that faith has a very positive effect… And, conversely, we must note that, with the dimming of the light of faith, society has become harder…” (Benedict XVI).