Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
November 19, 2025
While people were listening to Jesus speak,
he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem
and they thought that the Kingdom of God
would appear there immediately.
So he said,
“A nobleman went off to a distant country
to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.
He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins
and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’
His fellow citizens, however, despised him
and sent a delegation after him to announce,
‘We do not want this man to be our king.’
But when he returned after obtaining the kingship,
he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money,
to learn what they had gained by trading.
The first came forward and said,
‘Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.’
He replied, ‘Well done, good servant!
You have been faithful in this very small matter;
take charge of ten cities.’
Then the second came and reported,
‘Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.’
And to this servant too he said,
‘You, take charge of five cities.’
Then the other servant came and said,
‘Sir, here is your gold coin;
I kept it stored away in a handkerchief,
for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man;
you take up what you did not lay down
and you harvest what you did not plant.’
He said to him,
‘With your own words I shall condemn you,
you wicked servant.
You knew I was a demanding man,
taking up what I did not lay down
and harvesting what I did not plant;
why did you not put my money in a bank?
Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.’
And to those standing by he said,
‘Take the gold coin from him
and give it to the servant who has ten.’
But they said to him,
‘Sir, he has ten gold coins.’
He replied, ‘I tell you,
to everyone who has, more will be given,
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.
Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king,
bring them here and slay them before me.'”
After he had said this,
he proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.
The parable of the ten gold coins is a familiar one. Throughout the gospels, Jesus consistently tells us that the gifts we receive from God are meant to be used and shared for the glory of God and to advance the kingdom of heaven.
In this story, a nobleman entrusts ten servants each with a gold coin to trade while he is away. The parable reminds us that God’s gifts are valuable commissions, not talents we have created ourselves. As my mom used to say when she noticed something special in one of us, such blessings are plain and simply “God-given” and for God’s purposes.
Yet Jesus’ admonition in the parable can also be hard to understand and perhaps even contrary to his other messages. He tells us, “to everyone who has, more will be given; but from the one who has not, even what little he has will be taken away.” I have often pained at this message and sympathized with the servant who kept his coin locked away in a safe place for fear of the wrath of the admittedly hard master if the investment did not work out.
In pondering his message, Jesus may be challenging us to have the courage to use our God-given gifts for his glory, and not to let fear of disappointment, rejection, or the shame of failure prevent us from cultivating them. That may be where our faith is truly tested. It can seem scary to go out into the world and to use our gifts in full force and with full confidence that God is behind us. What if the endeavor doesn’t work out? What if the talents we are pursuing for God‘s glory somehow don’t end up the way we envisioned? What if we fail?
Jesus’s message is clear. There is work to be done in the kingdom of God, and as followers of Jesus, we must be faithful in serving him with the gifts he has bestowed on us. When we do so, Jesus has promised we will have greater gifts to use for his kingdom, a deepened relationship with him, and one day hear the words we long for: “Well done, my good servant.”
Prayer
We believe, O Lord, that you are consummate fairness. You know all the circumstances in our lives, our strengths and our weaknesses. We have been given the gift of life in our birth and the gift of your spiritual life in our baptism. Help us, we plead, to give back our self to you as you gave us of your very self in eternal life.
Saint of the Day
St. Raphael Kalinowski had a brilliant mind and a faithful heart that he used to spread the faith in Poland at the end of the 1800s. He survived ten years in a labor camp in Siberia before becoming a Carmelite priest.
He was born in 1835 to a noble family in Vilnius—his father taught mathematics and served as superintendent of the local boarding school for nobles. Raphael attended this school and graduated with honors in 1850.
Opportunities for further education were limited, so Raphael joined the Russian army that he might study at an engineering academy. He later was assigned as professor of mathematics at the academy, and helped to design railroads.
He was promoted to captain, but his heart was with the oppressed Poles of his homeland. He resigned from the army and joined resistance efforts, helping to lead a major uprising. He was captured and sentenced to die by firing squad. When his family intervened, Russian authorities feared that if they killed him, he would inspire more trouble as a political martyr. They sentenced him to ten years in a Siberian labor camp instead.
Over the course of nine months, he was forcibly marched to a labor camp in Siberia—many did not survive the journey, but Raphael had a hidden strength, and became a leader to other prisoners. He labored in salt mines there for ten years.
After his release, he returned to Poland, and became a tutor to the young prince, August Czartoryski. The prince suffered from tuberculosis, and Raphael accompanied him as he sought medical treatment and favorable climates; he had a profound influence on the young man’s life. The prince eventually became a priest and was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 2004.
Throughout his travels, Raphael became aware of the Russian persecution of the Church and of the people of his homeland. He entered a community of Carmelites in 1877 and was ordained a priest five years later. His leadership skills were recognized, and he was named superior of the community. He went on to found a number of new monasteries throughout Poland.
Raphael died of tuberculosis at the age of 72 in Wadowice, Poland—the same town in which Pope St. John Paul II was born 14 years later. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage—so many people would take handfuls of dirt from his grave that the nuns who oversaw the cemetery had to continually replace the earth and plants there.
Pope St. John Paul II counted Raphael as one of his boyhood heroes, and canonized him a saint in 1991—the first member of this Carmelite community to be named a saint since its founder, St. John of the Cross.
St. Raphael Kalinowski, you were the hero of Pope St. John Paul II who survived a Siberian labor camp to spread the faith in Poland—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Raphael Kalinowski is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed October 18, 2024.
