SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #461"But he that had received the one talent, came and said: 'Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown and gatherest where thou hast not strewed. And being afraid, I went and hid thy talent in the earth. Behold here thou hast that which is thine.' And his lord answering, said to him: 'Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not and gather where I have not strewed. Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers: and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away therefore the talent from him and give it him that hath ten talents.' For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant, cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 25: 24-30)
THE SLOTHFUL SERVANT did not correspond with grace and made no use of it, and used his natural gifts only in the service of the world. His faith was a dead faith, without love and without zeal. He excused himself by pleading that Almighty God was "hard," that His commandments were too difficult to keep, and that He required what it was impossible to give. His harangue and excuses, however, profited him nothing, because the very fact of his knowing that God's judgments are severe, ought to have made him exert himself to keep His laws. If he had corresponded with the grace he had received, he would have merited further grace, and would have been praised and rewarded. But he was slothful, did not profit by grace, and thus lost what grace he had (as we see lukewarm Christians lose even the gift of faith), and was thrust out of the kingdom of grace into the exterior darkness of hell.
THE SLOTHFUL SERVANT did not correspond with grace and made no use of it, and used his natural gifts only in the service of the world. His faith was a dead faith, without love and without zeal. He excused himself by pleading that Almighty God was "hard," that His commandments were too difficult to keep, and that He required what it was impossible to give. His harangue and excuses, however, profited him nothing, because the very fact of his knowing that God's judgments are severe, ought to have made him exert himself to keep His laws. If he had corresponded with the grace he had received, he would have merited further grace, and would have been praised and rewarded. But he was slothful, did not profit by grace, and thus lost what grace he had (as we see lukewarm Christians lose even the gift of faith), and was thrust out of the kingdom of grace into the exterior darkness of hell.
[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)
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