Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus uses images drawn from the world of business to instruct us in Christian living. And he especially likes the dynamic of investment, risk, and return as a model of the spiritual life. The reason is clear. God exists in gift form. Therefore, if you want his life in you, you have to learn to give it away.

Think of the coins we read about today as everything that we’ve received from God—life, breath, being, powers, and so on. Because they come from God, they are meant to become gifts. If you cling to them in the manner of the third servant, they don’t grow; in fact, they wither away.

Notice that the first two servants doubled their wealth precisely in the measure that they risked it. This means that the one who truly has the divine life knows how to make it a gift, and that in turn will make the original gift increase. And the opposite holds: “From the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” This means that if you try to cling to the divine life, you will, in short order, lose it.