By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who
fears the LORD is to be praised. Acclaim
her for the work of her hands, and let her deeds praise her at the city gates. Proverbs
31:30-31
For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will
grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Matthew 25:29
Piety
How we use our talents for
the sake of the Lord is a good measure of our piety. In our gospel, if you did not know better,
the talent appears a small sum of money.
In reality it was a great deal of money.
What is rewarded is not how much money was made but rather how well we
use our talents. Our talents in the
gospel story are a responsibility. The
one who buried his talent because it seemed so little in comparison to the ones
who had gotten more captures in a powerful way what happens in life. Piety teaches us that there is no need to be
jealous because we are judged not on how many talents we have, but rather on
how well we use our talents. Our piety
shows itself in how we live our lives in imitation of what attracts us to
Christ. Christ emptied himself out of
his use of his Godness so that he could be just like us. How we try to be like him is our piety.
Study
How we come to love and
appreciate the talents God has given us is how we discover our identity before
God. How we study the possibilities
around us as to what we can do is how we claim an identity before God. Our study of the past reveals to us what we
did not think ourselves capable of doing.
We learn by our study the need of trusting God. We know that we will not be tempted beyond
our talents. We learn to let go and let
God work in our lives.
Action
Our talents are uncovered by
our attempting to do what needs doing around us. We put our talents to work in meeting the
needs of our world. We live up to our
job responsibility and discover we have so much more to give. Gradually we discover it is not what we are
doing that matters so much as the love with which we do what we can. There is a God meaning in all we do out of
love because God is where there is love.
We offer our work as extensions of the ministry of Christ. Our life gradually becomes the statement of
how much God loves our world, as we are a part of God’s love. The more we try to do in his name, the more
he gives us to work with and to grow. We
enter into the joy of our God by growing in his work and sharing the Good News
of Salvation.
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