There is a Mediterranean gentleman, very rich and generous, who sets out on a journey and entrusts his wealth to servants. He doesn’t look for a financial advisor; he calls people of the household, believes in them, and has faith and plans to move them up from servants to sons.
With two, he succeeds. The third needs conversion.
When he’s back, the surprise doubles: Well, good servant! Good! Echoes the joyful voice of God in Genesis, when six times, “he saw what he had done and exclaimed: how good!” And the seventh time: how beautiful!
As the servants come to report back, God embraces them with trust and invites them to share in his joy. They enter a new dimension, participating in the power of creation where God has bestowed his joyful heart upon them.
I have also heard this invitation: “Enter into my joy.” After adoration, a homily, or when I hand someone a breath of hope or bread, I felt I was breathing better. “It seems selfish; do good! Your soul will be thankful.”
And then, the third servant speaks out of his fears. He mistook his fears for God when, in fact, God was trying to embrace him in life.
And under this mistaken image, life becomes burdensome. It falls to us to do the patient and intelligent work. We are all priests when we willingly hand ourselves into God’s hands. God is the springtime of the cosmos, and we become its fruit-scented summer.