The first reading from Proverbs speaks of a husband and a wife, specifically the richness of a loving wife.

The Church is the bride of Christ. We are the Church, so by some mathematical property we are also the bride of Christ. Have we ever thought of what kind of spouse we are to Him? I changed it so that we guys can be included! If we consider any positive relationship, it must be a two way street, it must have consistent love and respect shown as much as possible, and constant appreciation is also a key factor.

I had a woman come to me last week who has been doing great work for the Archdiocese. She shared with me through tears that her husband was very sick and that she for the first time in her life realized that she needed to adjust her priorities. Does this sound familiar? How many times do we say we are going to do this and we do not?

We end up burying too much of ourselves away from living life, and living it to the fullest in God’s presence. This is why in the parable the master was annoyed with the one who buried his one talent. How often do we do this in our life out of fear or some other reason?

This is the message that Jesus is trying to get across to us today.  I feel a little sorry for the first one, who buried his talent, but I suppose he was put in place to teach all of us to recognize the times we bury our life and faith because we have to conform to a certain person’s wishes or we find ourselves compromising for one reason or another.

I think about Harmon Killebrew who when he entered baseball’s hall of fame was asked how he became as good as he was. He said that his father would go out with him every day and play baseball for hours after he finished his homework and family chores. One day his mother came out and said that they were destroying the lawn. The father responded by saying he was raising a son not grass.

We too have an obligation to raise our faith, grow it to its potential and to live the life God asks us to. The church is certainly one place to do this. However, we must remember that God’s church goes beyond these walls. It extends to our daily lives, no matter what person sits in public office, no matter what person tries to block your efforts. They can never be the one to bury you. We can only do that ourselves.

The risk is that we lose sight of what our true priorities should be, we will lose the richness of life offered to us by God and we will not hear those beautiful words, “come and share your master’s joy.”