Developing His Talents

I often look at you folks and I am in awe of your God-given talents. So many people feel that the world is going “to hell and a handbag.” I cannot look at you and feel that way. In fact, I am very positive about the world’s future because I see how you are developing God’s gifts every day. Indeed I am elated that many of our families are filling the world with lots of children. I am elated that our young people are less concerned with paying for children then with bringing new reflections of God’s love into the world. The world needs more people like you.

The two successful men:

The servant who falls follows a different path:

Clergy E-Notes

“…if the family is the sanctuary of life, the place where life is conceived and cared for, it is a horrendous contradiction when it becomes a place where life is rejected and destroyed. So great is the value of a human life, and so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in the mother’s womb, that no alleged right to one’s own body can justify a decision to terminate that life, which is an end in itself and which can never be considered the “property” of another human being.”

— Pope Francis

Are You Taking Risks for God?

Over the long haul, the most irresponsible thing you can do is refuse to take risks: sure, you may loose money in any event but if you don’t take risks you will almost certainly lose money through inflation. Hold on to your money too tightly and you’ll loose it for sure. In today’s Gospel Jesus says that what is true regarding money applies to the rest of life as well.

The Three Blessings of Working for Jesus

Bottom line: Whether you are young or old, I am asking you to invest your time, talents and financial resources in your parish.

So let’s sum up the three blessings of working for Jesus: 1) To be a grateful servant 2) As you give, to receive even more 3) Retirement guaranteed, but until then, never too old to invest one’s gifts. “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.”

Doubling our Talents in Loving Relationship with our heavenly Father

The problem with the third servant is that he did not know his master well and was afraid of him. He thought he knew him, but he didn’t really. He had an impression of his master, but he didn’t really know him. It was that false impression of his master and fear of him that led him to bury the talent instead of doubling his gift like the other two servants. 

Stewardship

The goods of the world and the wealth derived from our labor must be used for God’s glory and human assistance. What is more, if a Christian would defend the benefits of capitalism, it ought to be based on the argument that capitalism is most effective in the service of God and ministry to the poor, homeless, and hungry.

The trustworthiness of the profitable servants ensures their share in the “joy of the Lord.” This is not because money is made. It is, rather, because the wealth of life and talent given them had been invested to bear fruit in labors of faith, hope, and charity.

Whether we are millionaires or paupers, it is upon this criterion that we will be judged.

Called to Invest

Jesus was not a stranger to the world of business. Indeed, his family depended on good business as do many families today. When Jesus gathered his main disciples around him, notice who he chooses? He chose fishermen for the most part. You had to be good at running a business back then if you were a fisherman. It wasn’t a matter of just catching the fish, they had to store their fish, market their fish, sell their fish, deliver the fish and pay salaries. In that area of the world, they would also have needed to be able to speak several languages. These men were a very good choice to become apostles and they would have understood the wisdom behind this parable well.