By Lisa Greey —
Have you ever been to a talent show? I’m sure you have! Did you perform? Did you watch your friends perform? The last talent show/coffeehouse I went to was primarily run by teens. I was blown away by their various talents: artists, musicians, singers, actors, and even bakers. All these teens were involved in their youth group, and they came to share their talents at a fundraiser my friend was having so she could join a religious order! It was neat to see their support of my friend’s vocation, and the courage they had to share their talents with the larger church community and strangers too!
Today’s gospel is about talent! A master gives out five talents to one servant, two to another and one to another. This symbolizes the talents that God gives each of us. Some of us are given an extraordinary amount of talents. I’m sure we all know at least one person like this – someone who is good at Math AND English, plays soccer well and has lead soprano in the choir. It seems too good to be true, but some people are very talented! Most of us probably have an area or two that we really excel in, and a lot of other things that we are ok at or we have to work really hard to excel in. Others have talents, but they choose not to use them. All these responses to talent are shown to us in the gospel today. The servants who were given 5 and 2 talents return to their master with double the amount!
How can you and I double our talents? 1) We need to spend time in prayer to identify the talents we have. 2) We need to grow in those talents. 3) We need to ask God how he wants us to use those talents to serve others and build up the Church. Building up the Church requires EVERY kind of talent imaginable. It’s not just up to the priests and Religious Education teachers and people who officially work for the church. We need Catholics who are talented in technology and web design, communications, culture, music, sports, broadcasting, dance, cooking and so much more! Because our faith affects every part of our life, our talents serve the Church no matter what they are! Now – some of us have talents that are more intuitive, that is, they less related to specific tasks and more related to working with people. These are talents of caring, love, listening, showing affection, friendship, connection with the elderly, connection with young people, spreading peace, speaking of truth … the list goes on and on. These talents are just as important as the more task oriented ones – so if you got these in spades – put them to work in the relationships you have with God’s people!
Whatever your talent or talents may be – we want to use them well. We don’t want to be the servant who buries his talent out of fear and is called a “wicked, lazy servant.” Let us identify and use our talents well so instead we are invited to “share in the master’s joy” because we became the young men and women he created us to be by using the gifts and talents given to us to build the kingdom of God on earth.
Leave a Reply