An Advance For Sunday's Gospel Thirty Third Sunday Ordinary Time

If you want to look ahead, coming up this Sunday is the Gospel of the Parable of The Talents.  

But the man who received one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money” (Mt 25:18).

Scripture readings for the Mass along with various reflections can be read here

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When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me.”

- Erma Bombeck

 My first thoughts on this are guilt-filled !!

This is the gospel that always fills with me with dread because of the dire consequences of not using even the little talents we have, and the knowledge of all the time I have wasted  and still waste on doing useless things and thinking useless thoughts. Scary...

Yes' it's the one that says to the servant that buried the one and only talent he had been given :

'You wicked, lazy servant!
So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant
and gather where I did not scatter?
Should you not then have put my money in the bank
so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?
Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.
For to everyone who has,
more will be given and he will grow rich;
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.

And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

The wailing I can understand but why this emphasis on grinding of teeth ??

Due to the wonders of the internet I have discovered there are seven passages in the New Testament which speak of "weeping and gnashing of teeth."  

Six are found in the gospel of Matthew and one in Luke.

Is God or the Devil a dentist ?  Remember the film Marathon Man ? Scary.........