Please read this passage before reading the homily.
Life is complicated and so is this gospel passage. Herod Archelaus was the son of Herod the Great. Upon his dad’s death he went to Rome to have the emperor give him his dad’s title. Herod returned, not as king but as a provincial ruler of part of his dad’s kingdom. He was not a well-liked person and some important citizens had gone to Rome to prevent him from being appointed king. We have no record that Herod had his adversaries put to death, but he was the kind of person who could have done it. The crowd would have understood these references to Herod Archelaus.
We have met the story of the servants with the master’s money in a different context last Sunday. The owner goes on a journey and divides his money among his servants. All but one go out and work with the money and make profit. One, however, hides the money and loses his position and his money.
The profitable servants took risks in investing their master’s money since the people did not like him. To invest money in that community, where the people did not like the ruler, was very risky business. The lone servant who hid his master’s money was smart not to risk his master’s money, but he was foolish in not recognizing the opportunities of the present age.
Our Lord is King. He had left his home with the Father and come here to be anointed king. He has returned and looks to see how we have invested our talent. Have we dared, as did the majority of the servants in the parable, to take risks and proclaim the gospel in all the circumstances of life by the way we live and act or have we kept everything stored up in a handkerchief?