After a long time the lord of those servants came, and settled accounts with them.
Read Chapter 25
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
After a long time, &c. This reckoning Christ makes with every one severally at death, and the particular judgment. He will make it publicly in the general Judgment.
After a long time. This represents the time that is to intervene between our Saviour's ascension and his last coming. For, as he is the Master, who went into a far country, i.e. to heaven, after he had inculcated the relative duties of each man in his respective state of life; so shall he come at the last day, and reckon with all men, commending those who have employed their talents well, and punishing such as have made a bad use of them. (St. Jerome)
The Lord who dispensed the talents returns to demand an account, because he who now generously bestows spiritual gifts may at the judgment inquire searchingly into what was achieved; he may take into account what everyone has received and weigh up the gain we bring back from his gifts.
In the case of the vineyard, he let it out to farmers and went into a far country. Here he committed to them the talents and took his journey that you might understand his patience and longsuffering. And to me he seems to say these things as an intimation of the resurrection. But here it is no more a vineyard and husbandmen but all farmers. For it is not to rulers only or to Jews but to all that he addresses this discourse. And those who bring a return to him confess frankly, both what is their own and what their Master’s. And the one says, “Lord, you gave me five talents,” and the other says, “two,” indicating that from him they received the source of their gain, and they are very thankful and reckon all to him. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
Having said above, "You do not know the day when the Lord will come," He adds this parable as well, showing that He will come suddenly. For like a man about to travel into a far country, so too the Lord has called His own servants and distributed His property among them, some to one, some to another. Christ, Who became man for our sake, is the "man travelling into a far country," in reference either to His ascent into the heavens or to the length of time that He is long-suffering and does not summarily demand works from us, but waits. His servants are those who have been entrusted with the ministry of the Word, such as bishops, priests, and deacons, and who have received spiritual gifts, some greater, some lesser, each one according to his own strength, that is, according to the measure of his faith and purity. For into the vessel which I will offer to God, He places His gift to me. If it is a small vessel, a small gift; if it is a large vessel, a large gift. Immediately he who had rec...
