Un-woke Matthew

"After a long timethe master of those servants came backand settled accounts with them.The one who had received five talents came forwardbringing the additional five.He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents.See, I have made five more.'His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.Since you were faithful in small matters,I will give you great responsibilities.Come, share your master's joy.'

Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said,'Master, you gave me two talents.See, I have made two more.'His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.Since you were faithful in small matters,I will give you great responsibilities.Come, share your master's joy.'

Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said,'Master, I knew you were a demanding person,harvesting where you did not plantand gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.Here it is back.'His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant!So you knew that I harvest where I did not plantand gather where I did not scatter?Should you not then have put my money in the bankso that I could have got it back with interest on my return?Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.

Matthew 25: 14-30

Sunday 19 November 2023. At Mass this morning, our visiting Irish priest compared the gospel today’s gospel of the equally paid workers in the vineyard, as a contrast in talent in time. Note that ‘talent’ in today’s gospel represented sixteen years of wages in contrast with a single day’s wages.

In today’s gospel, the distributor of this great wealth – 128 years’ worth of wages – was referred to first as ‘man,’ then ‘master,’ and finally, ‘person,’ and the recipients – ‘servants’ – were likely to have been slaves in the original, later sanitized, translation. NOTE: It’s all Greek to me.

Today, the master distributing the original money – talents – based on ability rather than fairness was in stark, racist contrast with the workers in the vineyards who were paid using a DEI approach.

A woke version of today’s gospel would have the slaves divide the 112 years of wages of created wealth, along with the original eight talents equally across the free slaves as reparations, then declared themselves free, and ending with cancelling – probably killing -- the master.