11/19/2023

Dear Parishioners,
There is an old story about two farmers visiting over a fence in early Spring. "Jake," the first one said, "What are you going to plant this year, corn?" "Nope," Jake replied, "scared of the corn borer." "Well, what about potatoes?" his neighbor asked. "Nope, too much danger of potato bugs," announced Jake. The neighbor pressed on, "Well, then, what are you going to plant?" Jake answered, "Nothing! I'm going to play it safe." In today’s gospel Jesus tells the story of a lazy servant like Jake, who buried his talent instead of doing business with it.
The parable of the talents in today’s gospel challenges us to do something positive, constructive and life-affirming with our talents here and now for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. A very rich person, about to set off on a journey, entrusted very large sums of money (talents) to three of his slaves, each according to his personal ability: five, two, and one to do business in his absence. A talent was worth about 15 years wages for a simple day laborer. Through skillful trading and investing, the slave with the five talents managed to make five more -- doubling his master's money. The slave with the two talents did the same. The third slave buried his talent in the ground. He was afraid to take the risk, afraid of the consequences of losing all the money, and afraid of the master’s reaction if he did. On the day of accounting, the master rewarded the two clever slaves and punished the third slave. The parable teaches that God gives each person different gifts and talents to use them for the benefit of the community. God gives more responsibilities to those who make the best use of their God-given talents. He will punish the lazy and the unproductive and bless those who share generously the gifts they were given. God expects us to use our every talent for personal growth, community service and religious witnessing. What are ways we can use our talents for God’s Glory and for good on one another?
The first life message given by the parable is that we need to trust God enough to make use of the gifts and abilities we have been given. We may be especially talented in teaching children or cooking meals or repairing homes or programming computers. So, we should ask ourselves how we are using our gifts in the service of our Christian community and the wider society.
The second message is that we need to make use of our talents in our parish. In addition to our homes and families, the best place to do this is in our parish. This means that we should be always willing to share our abilities in creative worship in the church and in various ministries in our parish as Eucharistic ministers, lectors, ushers, Sunday school teachers, singers in the choir, volunteers and members in various parish organizations and community outreach programs.
The final message is that we need to trade with our talent of Christian faith: All of us in the church today have received at least one talent namely, the gift of faith. Our responsibility is not just to preserve and “keep” the faith, but to work with it. We need to promote and add value to faith by living it out. The way to preserve the faith, or any other talent that God has given us, is to put it to work and make it bear fruit.

Love and Peace, Fr. Karl