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To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
All true riches are in Christ, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). He became poor in his incarnation that he could raise us up in divinization.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich (see Second Corinthians 8:9).
At first the idea of taking away from anyone who is already impoverished to begin with sounds hostile and mean. But when we realize that this is the inevitable fate of all riches not based on having Christ as our treasure we realize that it is a warning given out of kindness. The house built on a rock will last. But these riches are houses built on sand.
What do we account as riches in our own lives? What do we value the most and give priority in terms of our time and our money? We are called to assess these things to ensure that we the treasure we are seeking is a treasure that can last. We are often easily distracted by things which seem like wealth but which are not. We should pray with that the eyes of our hearts be "enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints" (see Ephesians 1:18).
The parables teach us how to have kingdom values. But they are not scientific formulae that can be used to acquire riches on our own terms. The parables themselves require that we have Christ already so that we may grow rich in their wisdom. Faith and humility are the keys that unlock them.
What does it look like to value worldly riches instead of those of the kingdom?
Two evils have my people done:
they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;
They have dug themselves cisterns,
broken cisterns, that hold no water.
Let us then return to the devotion of our youth, when we loved God as a bride, and followed him even into the desert. The desert is not a place we go to find riches, but if the bridegroom is present we have more than we could ask or imagine.
I remember the devotion of your youth,
how you loved me as a bride,
Following me in the desert,
in a land unsown.
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