focus: God has given unique gifts and abilities, talents, to each one of us.
function: We are called upon and challenged to use them to the full for building up the kingdom of God.
As I was praying with today’s gospel, a comment came to my mind that our associate pastor in Germany made back when I was a teen. Father Paul said to my mother: “Basti wants to be challenged!” Basti was my nickname at this time, derived from my baptismal name Sebastian. My mom shared this comment with me.
The young priest had made reference to my activities in the parish. There were a lot of youth programs at this time at my home parish of Holy Savior in Noerdlingen; and I was involved as the leader of an altar servers’ group, facilitated sessions in the youth’s bible study, and helped with social outreach to the poorthrough another youth group. However, by nature I was introverted and somewhat shy. Therefore, I needed encouragement and challenge. I received both from the priest who was in charge of youth ministry. This helped me to discover my gifts and abilities and to develop them. “Basti wants to be challenged!”
Gifts, “talents,” and their use are also the topic of Jesus’ parable in today’s gospel. There is this man who entrusts his property to his servants while he travels abroad. He is an enterprising employer who hopes that his own involvement and daring in business matters will be reflected in his servants’ attitude to this challenge. He doesn’t tell them what to do with the “talents.” He trusts that they will use their own initiative and imagination in their economic venture.
As in all stories and jokes with three characters, our attention is focused on number three: the third servant is portrayed as the one who refuses to engage with the spirit of the enterprise. He believes that the safest way to handle his talent is to bury it and to return it intact to his master.
It’s worth noting that the servants receive gifts that differ. It is not the number of a person’s talents that is important, either. What matters is how he/she uses them. God never expects from us abilities which we really don’t have. However, we are meant to use to the full in the service of God and of other people those abilities that we do have.
I always empathized with the third servant, perhaps because it was quite a learning process for me to acknowledge and use my gifts! The third servant was afraid of taking a risk. He didn’t lose his talent; he simply didn’t do anything with it. The master seems to think though that even if he had invested it and lost the money, it would have been better than doing nothing at all. Here is exactly Jesus’ message for us: Using our talents for good can mean going beyond our comfort zone, can involve risk-taking. Volunteering for a task at the parish, for example, or in the monastery, can be the right thing to do even if it presents us with a new and unfamiliar challenge!
Today’s second reading is taken from St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Thessalonians, an early Christian community that the apostle was particularly fond of. He begins this letter saying: We call to mind “your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Christians in Thessalonica worked on their faith: they actively stayed in touch with God through prayer, they gathered on the day of the Lord for the breaking of the bread, the Eucharist, they heard the word of Holy Scripture and let it dwell in their hearts richly. Thus, they were children of the light, ready for and attentive to Christ whenever and wherever he encountered them. St. Paul saw this and he acknowledged it. He praised them for that.
My sisters and brothers, God has given unique gifts and abilities, talents, to each one of us. We are called upon and challenged to use them to the full for building up the kingdom of God.
Maybe it would be a good idea today or this week to name some of the strengths and gifts that God has given us and to thank God for them. For some of us it may take a little while till something comes up! Plus, we can ask God to show us whether there are perhaps new and different ways in which we can make use of them. We are the light of the world, Jesus tells us. How can we let our light shine more brightly? Which obstacles obstruct that shining?
How can we do what Father Paul did with me, namely help others to discern their gifts and encourage them to use them? Sometimes, it may be good to say to someone, perhaps a young person if this is the way we feel: I notice that you are a man, a woman of prayer and that you really care for other people. I think, you would make a good priest, monk, Sister, lector, EMHC, …
Using our God-given talents and strengths with constancy for the service of God and others can be challenging, but, as today’s collect assures us, it is lasting happiness. Doing so means sharing our Master’s joy, here on this earth and after this life in fullness in heaven.
AMEN.
~Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB