Dear Lord, help us to receive and come to appreciate the gifts You give us, to develop further and to share with others. Help us to be more generous in our love, risky in our generosity, and free from temptations to be less than You have created us to be. Inspire us to see and trust Your gifts in others. Help us to call forth the gifts of others in our communities. May we all one day be gathered to share Your joy.
On this day, the feast of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, who shadowed him with prayer and presence, seeking his conversion, help us to recognize and acknowledge how complicated—yet gratifying—mother-son relationships are from each side. We pray for all mothers and sons today.
Reflection
It is wonderful to pause today to remember that Jesus has entrusted to us - put us in charge of - tremendous resources. For us who are baptized into him, they are truly his resources. It is good to remember that I probably don't fully appreciate what I have been given, and therefore, what I have to invest. And I probably don't fully appreciate the gifts that others around me have, and what resources they might be able to share. Even when I am stretched and learn new skills - becoming a better listener, changing a long standing pattern and discovering a new ability, taking a risk that pays off many times over - the inspiration and gift is from the Lord. Whether we are practicing better patience, greater self-confidence and courage, fuller chastity, deeper generosity, these are all fruits of his Spirit - given to us for the benefit of all, for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Matthew 25:14-30 is probably familiar to many of us: “To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one – to each according to his ability.” The first two took the talents and invested them; they took certain risks, and showed a profit—again, each according to his ability.
When he asked for an accounting from the third servant, all he got was an excuse for not even trying! “Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.”
Did you catch that? The third person who received only one talent is the only one who speaks of the Master in the language of “demanding, fear, burying, and returning one for one what he was given.”
Notice that the other two never speak about their negative reactions to their master. Rather, a generous, non-self-focused response to the gift of the talents evokes a generous, non-self-focused additional blessing from the master. The two that focus on the gift seem free to accept and honor what they have received.
It makes one wonder about the role of dealing with whatever gifts or talents a person has been given. Perhaps the person with the one talent resents knowing the limitations he/she has to go through life with. Maybe this person envies the others. Whatever the case, in the final analysis, it was fear of the master that drove the 3rd servant in the gospel to bury the talent.
I will admit that I’m not the sharpest tack in the drawer, and I don’t claim to be a psychiatrist or psychologist (neither of those “talents” were gifted to me by the Father), and I’m not into the whole “power of positive thinking” bit; but, this gospel is an interesting little revelation about the possible connections between self-acceptance, self-estimation, and fear of the master. It seems to me that having a healthy balance of all three elements is what makes us worthy of the talents we are given, “each to our own ability.”
I wonder if it has to do with the way some of us already look at God. I wonder what this might look like lived out in one’s prayer life and life of service to others.
We can look to Saint Monica (or any other saint for that matter) for the answer to those queries.
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