The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus's teaching on how to live with faith. At once challenging and comforting, Jesus's vision of faith calls us to a radical dependence on God and detachment from all other goods. At the heart of faith is an unshakable trust in God's infinite love for us. This conviction frees us to live without fear and to strive for virtue without anxiety. To have a living faith, however, takes personal prayer: times in which we apply the basic truths of our faith in God to the concrete circumstances and concerns of our current lives.

Jesus' parable of the talents is an image of Christian life. God has invested a lot in each one of us. Like the servants who eagerly trade with their talents to make them fruitful, we want to accept all the opportunities and challenges that our Lord has entrusted to us. Too often it is easy to resent life, focusing only on the difficulties, and end up like the third servant who buries his talent out of laziness and fear.

St. Paul expresses God's intent that "all men be saved." In his providence, God counts on his apostolic Church to fulfill this divine desire. He is always looking for "laborers" for the vineyard. The parable of the unjust steward reminds us to be grateful guardians of God's gifts and to be shrewd in pursuing our noble ends.