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 person; 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 person, 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.'
'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.

Gospel commentary

Pope Francis
General Audience of 05/06/2013 (trans. © copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Today I would like to reflect on the issue of the environment, as I have already had an opportunity to do on various occasions... When we talk about the environment, about creation, my thoughts go to the first pages of the Bible, to the Book of Genesis, where it says that God puts men and women on the earth to till it and keep it (cf. 2:15). And these questions occur to me: What does cultivating and preserving the earth mean? Are we truly cultivating and caring for creation? Or are we exploiting and neglecting it? The verb “cultivate” reminds me of the care a farmer takes to ensure that his land will be productive and that his produce will be shared. What great attention, enthusiasm and dedication!

Cultivating and caring for creation is an instruction of God which he gave not only at the beginning of history, but has also given to each one of us; it is part of his plan; it means making the world increase with responsibility, transforming it so that it may be a garden, an inhabitable place for us all. Moreover on various occasions Benedict XVI has recalled that this task entrusted to us by God the Creator requires us to grasp the pace and the logic of creation. Instead we are often guided by the pride of dominating, possessing, manipulating and exploiting; we do not “preserve” the earth, we do not respect it, we do not consider it as a freely-given gift to look after. We are losing our attitude of wonder, of contemplation, of listening to creation and thus we no longer manage to interpret in it what Benedict XVI calls “the rhythm of the love-story between God and man”. Why does this happen? Why do we think and live horizontally, we have drifted away from God, we no longer read his signs.

However “cultivating and caring” do not only entail the relationship between us and the environment... They also concern human relations... We are living in a time of crisis; we see it in the environment, but above all... the human person is in danger today, hence the urgent need for human ecology!