“Toys!”
By Rick Stevens, Fiat Ventures
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Whoever dies with the most toys wins! This saying has adorned bumper stickers and T-shirts for years now. The famous quote is attributed to the late Malcomb Forbes, the publishing magnate of Forbes magazine fame.
Before his death in 1990, the mega-millionaire Forbes was well-known for a lavish collection of exclusive homes, treasured works of art, private jets, motorcycles, yachts, and even Faberge eggs. Forbes was also known to spend extravagantly on parties- like the time he flew 1,000 guests to Tangier, Morocco for his 70th birthday party.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus warns against just the type of lifestyle that Forbes exemplified. He tells us in no uncertain terms that we must guard against all greed – that one does not measure success in life by their possessions.
But sometimes this lesson can be a difficult one to understand. We live in a time where society pressures us into thinking that more is better. Some of us are conditioned from an early age to attend the finest schools to get the finest job that will buy us more possessions…then we will be happy.
Even those of us who choose or are forced to choose a lifestyle with fewer possessions still have time and talent to offer. We can also be conditioned to spend our time and talents exclusively on ourselves and the pursuit of happiness.
The Gospel message is that storing up all of this for ourselves is not what matters to God and not what will create lasting joy for us. We should first recognize that our treasures, time and talents come from a combination of gifts from the Holy Spirit and hard work. But the gifts of the Holy Spirit are designed to be used differently.
The traditional seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (knowledge, wisdom, etc.) and the fruits that are born of these gifts (patience, joy, kindness, etc.) are meant to be kept to make us virtuous. But charisms, or special talents, are gifts from the Holy Spirit that are meant to be given away.
Charism is a Greek word that means “favor” or “gratuitous gift.” They are divinely empowering and designed to enhance our natural talents to achieve great things. Some of these charisms include craftsmanship, teaching, encouragement, leadership, writing and music. When perfected, charisms can be used to make us very successful. They can also be used to do a lot of good for others.
Our first challenge, then, is to use the charisms given to us by the Holy Spirit and perfect them. The next challenge is to share them with others as God intended. Notice from the sample list of charisms above that some are designed to be shared with others in time and talent, not just treasure. A spoken word of encouragement, an invitation to join a group, a song or letter of support are all examples of how we share our time and talent, in addition to our treasures.
So maybe we should rephrase the late Mr. Forbes’ famous quote to, “Whoever dies having shared the most toys, time and talent wins.” After all, if we want to guard against greed, we need to recognize time and talent as possessions that should not be stored up but shared with others as generously as treasures.
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