Parable of the Talents,
Painted by Andrei Mironov (born 1975),
Painted in 2013,
Oil on canvas
© Andrei Mironov Artist
Parable of the Talents,
Painted by Andrei Mironov (born 1975),
Painted in 2013,
Oil on canvas
© Andrei Mironov Artist
Sir, you entrusted me with two talents
Matthew 25:14-30
Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: 'The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out.
'The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more. The man who had received two made two more in the same way. But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
'Now a long time after, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. "Sir," he said "you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made."
'His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master's happiness."
'Next the man with the two talents came forward. "Sir," he said "you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more that I have made." His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master's happiness."
'Last came forward the man who had the one talent. "Sir," said he "I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back." But his master answered him, "You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth."'
Reflection on our painting
Even though painted in classical style, our canvas was only executed in 2013. Contemporary Russian artist, Andrei Mironov fought in the First Chechen War. What he experienced in that war had considerable influence on his artistic development. His works, such as our painting today, have a profound meditative aspect and a sense of melancholy. We see depicted the man who was given two talents; he is pondering what to do. As we know, he used his two talents well and gave back four talents to his master. The light he is holding, symbolic of God's grace and guidance, inspired him to make the right decisions to put his two talents to good use.
While talents in our Gospel reading refer to money, a 'talent' in our day usually denotes a particular gift or ability which is given to each of us when we are born. It is a distinctive ability to do something special. God wants that something special to be used to help build his Kingdom here on earth. Today is therefore a great day to think about what those gifts actually are. Maybe some of us have never given much thought to what our special talents might be, talents that we can put at the service of God and God's people.
Fear can, however, prevent us from using our talents well. That is exactly what distinguished the third servant in today’s parable from the other two. We hear of the third man saying, ‘I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground’. Fear disabled him and prevented him from responding to the trust that his master had placed in him by giving him a significant sum of money as a gift. In the gospels, fear is often portrayed as the opposite of faith or trust.
We pray today that God may shine his light upon our talents, like the lantern in our painting, so we can put them to good use for the glory of God.
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Wishing my sisters and brothers in the CA community a blessed and happy Sunday. My two thoughts about today’s Gospel, the painting, and Fr Patrick’s reflection. The first relates to the impact of war on the artist. I took the man’s white cloth wrap as a bandage; a wounded warrior contemplating what to do next with his life. (My understanding is the Russian invasion of Chechenia was filled with brutalities.) The second relates to fear. Fear of inaction–showing lack of faith and trust in God–is worse than the fear of attempting to discover and use a talent. Lord, please strengthen my faith and trust to discover my talent and to use it!
“Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things,”
Yes, I fully appreciate Fr.’s reading on the painting today … and undoubtably he would know better than I. But nonetheless on the first viewing I took Mironov’s brilliant ‘portrait’ today as a depiction of the ‘Third Servant’. Only after reading Patrick’s reflection did I ‘need’ to go back and enlarge the piece and discover “… hmmmm yes I suppose there are ‘two’ talents there…”
But I think the brilliance of the piece is its “strangeness” – that, as I read latter, is typical of Mironov’s work. And in my research I could find nothing more about the painting itself. However I did find a site representing his prolific endeavors … and also a picture of the young man in his Studio. And further to this point, I couldn’t help noticing a none too slight resemblance to the figure presented today. …? “Hmmmm this makes it all the more ‘strange'”.
Yes, there is the “lamp being held” – of “Grace” as Fr. rightly interpreted. But its the weak, if not a ‘setting sun radiance’ that, the largely burnt down candle casts – only but cleaving the darkness.
Yet, is this not a beautiful revealing of the Human soul – especially one who has suffered through the horrors of Russia War? And this also of, “ the artist s a young man” who knows well – as a fervent Christian – the dire humiliation of one’s Stalinistic nightmarish history! It renders him in a kind of ‘strange light’, and an awesome humility. Even with such Faith emerging from such darkness and pain, and with such a testament of artistic aspiration and talent, the soul is a little fearful – GODLY FEARFUL: “… am I returning to the Lord, one or two talents? ”
But alas, he knows that the Blessed Mother has covered him with her blue mantle of Love and that he wears bound about his heart his pure baptismal robe. The lamp he holds – weak of light as it may be – is held high, as high as his battle worn arm can hold it. His head is bent before His Lord and God … his lips closed – without excuse or self defense.
Many of us have not been given ‘five Talents’.
Some of us perhaps only two or even one.
But if we invest our Best,
Using our less FOR HIS GREATEST,
Surely we can be at rest in our “blessedness”;
In the glorious legacy of the Saints who go before us –
Even with our Queen and Mother every Blessed –
Who defends and upholds us …
In this valley of strangeness and Darkness.
We seem to live in a risk averse and fear based society where people demand their safe spaces. In order to be creative one must take some risks. In today’s reading the two servants who doubled their talents must have done so with some risk involved. I love the description of Aslan in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”.
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…”Safe?” said Mr Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1 )
Entrusted
Pondered
Guided
Invested
Reaped
Pleased
Rewarded
Entrusted
I very much like the iconography in today’s painting – the lamp symbolising God’s guidance. I pray that He can direct us too – especially in recognising our own talent – or even maybe more than one…
What I took from today’s gospel is that He is The God of Small Things (to coin a phrase) Something was given to each – according to his ability – a crucial phrase. But when something is achieved through the small things we do, God shows we are rewarded with greater.
Therefore, we really don’t have to be outstanding in any way, only ourselves. Even if we only have one ‘talent’, as long as we use it, we will rejoice when He addresses us ‘Good and Faithful Servant’.
Sunday Blessings everyone.
Patricia, your comment reminds me of the mustard seed, or, more obviously, the loaves and fishes. From the smallest act of kindness, from the smallest act of giving, offered up to God and then in His hands he can expands it to something so much greater. This reminds me to offer every moment up to God, even now when I am taking a break from knitting to glance at CA. 🧶🤭
Lovely, Patricia, thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day & blessings to you.
¡Buenos días a todos!
Cuando la obra de arte que nos propone el P. P es antigua y clásica me parece maravilloso, contemplarla y leer vuestros comentario (siempre aprendo mucho), pero cuando el arte es actual me encanta, porque me hace sentir la presencia de Dios en el mundo actual y como la fe mueve los corazones de los artistas también hoy en día.
Para el mi el mensaje del evangelio de hoy es NO al miedo, NO a una vida estéril. SI a la respuesta activa a Dios. Cuando nos ilumina la gracia y el Espíritu nos arriesgamos. El mensaje de Jesús es claro: NO al conservadurismo, SI a la creatividad. El conservadurismo es más fuerte en tiempos de crisis religiosa.. Y si nos referimos al conservadurismo en la Iglesia…., durante años hemos dicho: conservar la tradición, conservar el depósito de la fe, ….. La prudencia, la resignación, la fidelidad al pasado, el miedo, deberíamos cambiarlos por audacia, búsqueda, riesgo y escucha del Espíritu. El principal empeño de nosotros, la Iglesia de Jesucristo hoy, no puede ser conservar el pasado, sino aprender a comunicar la Buena Noticia en una sociedad sacudida por cambios sociales y culturales sin precedentes
PD. esta parábola es una de las más difíciles de explicar a los niños y jóvenes, ellos dicen
El Señor no es justoMi oración de hoy es: ayúdame Señor a trasmitir el mensaje, un mensaje que arrastró a muchos hace algún tiempo y que ahora quizás no sabemos trasmitir
¡Que tengáis un buen domingo!. Nos vamos a Misa: rezo por vosotros, no os olvidéis de hacerlo por mi
That’s very interesting, Elvira, and you are right, God does want us to be creative and adventurous, not stuck in the past, afraid to confront the challenges of our fast-changing world. Well done for trying to convince your young people of the good news. Sea valiente, rezo por usted.
🙏
This so relates to your reflection Elvira:
One of my favorite Novelists: p 36, “The Second Coming” by Walker Percy
“It took me all my life to make the discovery. Why so long? And then I had to go crazy to do it. Why was the discovery so difficult? Because it is the very nature of the thing to be discovered, and the very nature of the seeking that it could not be found by asking somebody or by reading a book. Imagine being born with gold tinted cornea and undertaking a lifelong search for gold. You’d never find it.
What was my discovery? That I could ‘act’. I was free to ‘act’. Is this something everybody knows or thinks he knows or if he knows, knows in the wrong way? With gold tinted cornea everything looks like gold but it’s fools gold.”
… do we know we are allowed to be fools? > ‘Holy Fools’? What if … the Masses that we attend so blithely are in fact a way to ‘Become’, to celebrate with gratitude, the ‘Gold of God’s Life?
Siento no conocer este autor. A veces escribís sobre obras a las que no he tenido acceso. Pero OK, es bueno aprender
I imagine that I use my God given talent for the honor of God. Together with a ‘colleague’ (of course we’re both volunteers) we make every 2 month our parish magazine. It is a lot of work, I am busy for 8 days with editing, and we always say “Let’s hope that God is satisfied with our work.”
May be that is enough in God’s eyes! I have some more talents, but they are only for my own pleasure, like cooking and making patchwork.
Trasmitir la Buena Noticia del Evangelio es siempre un buen esfuerzo, seguro que Dios está satisfecho de vuestro trabajo. Y me atrevo a decir que también los que lo leen. Enhorabuena
I know nothing in Spanish. Is ‘muchas gratias’ allright in Spanish?
It´s so kind of you to answer me in Spanish. Thanks a lot. 😉
Does your cooking and patchwork please God? Do you do it as well as you can? If so you are using your talents. You are making something of what you have been given.
Thank you, Anthony. I suppose it is true what you ‘re saying. Today I have an emeritis priest for dinner and I am doing my utmost to make for him a nice dinner. He is a bit lonesome and he don’t like cooking , so he eats here about once a week. And he likes a glas of whisky, which he cann’t afford for himself.
Dear Rya
Your hospitality is doing something beautiful for God, and his minister here on earth. Bless you in all your activities, and today, bon appetit! 🌻
Thank you and be blessed.
That is wonderful Rya. I have a strong belief in showing thanks and gratitude to our priests for their life of service to us. Your talents are definitely being used – not only in the cooking but in your welcome, your friendship and generosity…especially with the whisky!🥃 Cheers 😁
Thanks, Patricia. I like whisky too, so we have a drink together and we both appreciate it. Be blessed!
Slange var! – Gaelic for cheers.
My father was Scottish, so also love a wee dram…
Good morning. Fear!!!!!!! I think it is fear that stopped us from using our talents, or answering Gods call to action whatever that may be. I know of so many occasions when I have been afraid for so many reasons. At my age will I ever overcome this fear. By God’s Grace, yes. But it is going to taker perseverance.
I like the artwork, it is so well lit. The young man is gazing at the talents, not in fear but in wonder.
I’m going to take Father’s suggestion and think about any skills I may have, that I have buried! And pray to be free of fear.
On another subject. I am fairly new to the forum. I have spent ages deleting my previous comments. Is that something I should do or just leave them, do they delete themselves in time.
Evening Janey, greetings. As far as I can see our comments stay, unless we delete them. I’ve never deleted anything, as I don’t really see the need. But if you feel more comfortable doing that, that’s absolutely fine, though as you say, time consuming! I doubt many people go back to look at old posts, but they can be saved to favourites for easy access. Best wishes. 🌻
Evening Janey I think our comments become part of the reflection on the gospel and the painting because they remain. Of course, Fr Patrick starts us off, but each response adds to the whole,- and I am sure all would agree – they enrich us further.
Efectivamente, son fuente de sabiduría
Thank you for your thoughts. I will leave my comments . Perhaps all our comments enrich the “soil” and so should stay. Many blessings and have a good night.