Untitled - Saints' Books

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1 62 Material for Sermons. [PART i.
sity, and is able to assist them by teaching the truths of
faith, or by preaching the divine word, and even by
hearing confessions, and through sloth neglects to give
them spiritual aid ? I know not, I say, how he can
escape on the day of judgment the reproof and chastise
ment threatened against the slothful servant who hid
the talent given to him, that he might trade with The
it.
master gave him that talent that he might trade with it,
but he hid it; and when the master demanded an ac
count of -the profit he had received from it, he answered:
I hid thy talent in the earth ; behold, here thou hast that which
is thine. But 1
for hiding the talent the master reproved
him, saying: What! I have given you a talent that you
might trade with it; this is the talent, but where are the
profits He ? then took the talent from him, commanded
it to be given to another, and ordered him to be cast
into exterior darkness: Take ye away therefore the talent
from him, and give it him that hath ten talents; and the
. . .
unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness? To
be cast into exterior darkness means, according to the
commentators, to be sent into the fire of hell, which
gives no light, and to be excluded from heaven.
This passage
is applied by St. Ambrose, 3 Calmet,
Cornelius a Lapide, and Tirinus to those that can pro
cure the salvation of souls, and neglect to do it, either
through negligence or through a vain fear of commit-
This," says Father Cornelius, is advice to
ing sin.
those who through indifference or a vain fear of sin
ning do not devote to the salvation of their neighbor
the lights, the talents that they receive from God; no
doubt Christ will ask of them an account on the day of
1
"Abscond! talentum tuum in terra; ecce habes quod
tuum est."
Matt. xxv. 25.
2 Tollite "
itaque ab eo talentum, et date ei qui habet decem talenta;
. . . et inutilem servum ejicite in tenebras exteriores."
3
De Dignit. sac. c. I.