Parable of the Talents: What of the Fourth Servant?

On Catholic Exchange:

The point of this parable [of the talents] is pretty obvious. Even a child would tell you that it means we are supposed to use the gifts that God gives us. He will hold us accountable for what we do with them. It seems rather straightforward. Use our gifts well and they will multiply. Ignore them and they will stagnate. What happens when this doesn’t go according to plan, however?

As one of my friends pointed out, the story needs a fourth servant. The fourth servant is given his talents and he (or in our case, she) goes out and tries to do all she can with her talents. And she fails, repeatedly. Nothing multiplies. Every effort comes up short. In an economic comparison, she invests all she has in the stock market and the stock market has crashed. When the master returns, she has little to show for her efforts, except a bucketload of tears of frustration. As my friend said this. I nodded enthusiastically. Yes, this is where I fall in this parable. I imagine many other people feel this way as well....

Ah, but the Master has not returned yet!

Our parable isn’t done being written yet. Maybe God has some plan we just can’t see. Maybe our work, our talents, is bearing some fruit we are unaware of.

Sometimes the talents that we think that we're offering to God aren't the talents that God is putting to work. The servant who has not fared so well in the stock market may have learned skills that will be valuable to her next assignment-- for example, learning to set up the castle computer so that she could set up her online trading account.

Another example: think of the church lady who plugs away at a project that seemingly comes to nothing. She thinks she has been offering talents of organization, web skills, industry. She looks mournfully at the empty sign-in sheets and the dwindling treasury, the website with no hits, and think that she has nothing to show for her efforts.

The Master, however, observes how the church lady has mastered the use of the giant old percolator in the parish kitchen (partly out of self-interest, since she is fond of coffee) -- and has become the "go-to" person for percolator lessons. She has also managed to drop hints to some of the other organizations about the better-tasting supermarket coffees out there. (Costco Columbian in the big can) The discouraged church lady thinks that she's squandered her two talents on the flagging project, but the Master is looking at the returns from the percolator project. His flock now have much better odds at getting drinkable coffee at the donut hour -- and at other occasions: there is the two-talent investment with the two-talent return.

The Master is a long-term investor, not a day-trader. He reaps where He does not sow. The fourth servant may be sweating now, but he hasn't been called to the accounting yet. He may enter the chamber and gasp with surprise, "See! I have made five more". The last shall be first. Lord, have mercy on Your bumbling, unprofitable servants.