From our Pastor’s Desk

Dear Family:

We are now on the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time. Next Sunday we will celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Hence, our readings at this time are about the last times – death, the end of the world, final judgment, heaven and hell. These are the hard realities we can never avoid. It is, therefore, necessary and wise to do our preparation way ahead of these inevitable events.

The parable of the Ten Virgins last Sunday reminded us that we must have an ample supply of oil to keep our lamps burning in preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus at the end of time. This Sunday, the Gospel gives us the parable of the Talents. It reminds us of the unannounced coming of the Lord and the time for accounting and judgment. Hence, there is the need to properly use our talents and gifts for the glory of God and the welfare of our fellowmen.

The meaning of the parable is clear. We are the servants. The talents are the blessings God has given us – time, intelligence, our capacity to love, temporal goods, family, and the like. The journey of the master signifies our life in this world. His sudden return stands for our death. The settling of accounts is our judgment. The eternal banquet is Heaven.

The master entrusted talents (a significant amount of money or gold) to his three servants before he went away for some time. The amount was proportionate to the capacity of each servant, and the master hoped that it would be handled properly until his return. The first two servants invested the money and, as a result, they were able to double the amount when the master returned. The third servant acted foolishly. He buried the money of his master. This greatly offended the master.

It was a threefold offense: first, he did not use the money according to its purpose. In burying it, it was not able to help other people, and so it did not grow. Second, it revealed the superficial relationship he had with his master. It was a relationship based only on fear, and not love. And third, it also showed his low self-esteem. He did not count his giftedness. Instead, he compared himself with the other two servants, and in the process, he looked down on himself and even accused the master of being a hard man, reaping where he should not have sown. In all these, it was clear that he was not a trustworthy servant.

In all honesty, we have to admit that sometimes we are like this servant. Instead of looking at our self and counting our blessings, we look at other people who have more. We become envious of them and our discontent grows. So, instead of thanking God and using His blessings, we complain. We then end up becoming bitter and unhappy. God never created anybody empty. There is always a particular grace with which He has uniquely decorated each of us. This special inherent gift in us from God is for a particular purpose, an indispensable grace to help us contribute to improving the living conditions of men and women and making ourselves fit to live with Him in eternity.

In the parable of today’s Gospel reading, Jesus reminds us of God’s special gift of grace to each of us and of His expectation that we be productive with the multiplicity of graces, talents, and necessary ingredients inherent in us to imitate our Creator productively.

Sometimes we are carried away by our quantitative analysis and comparison of the gifts of God in us and in others that we lose sight of their proper end. We must always be certain that God’s interest is not essentially the amount of talents we have received from Him but rather our ability to bear corresponding fruits and be productive after the example of Him who made all things, and to produce after the models of the things He created. We are blessed more than we can ever imagine. He expects us to use these blessings, not to bury them in the ground. The more we use them and share them with others, the more blessed we are, and we become a blessing to others as well.

Burying our talents is another word for selfishness. The more selfish we are, the more we feel insecure and insignificant, and we indulge in self-pity. But Jesus reminds us that we should never feel insignificant, for we are all precious in the eyes of God. We should never say, “I am just a small person. My presence is not important in this world.” Just imagine a piano with one key missing. It can never play a complete melody. Imagine a typewriter or a computer keyboard missing one letter. You can never compose a complete message.

Each one of us has significant contributions in the building up of the Body of Christ. Each one of us is important and precious in the eyes of God. Instead of indulging in self-pity or being envious of others, let us resolve to use our gifts and talents. As St. Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” This means that the best way to give glory to God is to develop our life to its fullest potential, by using our God-given gifts, talents and blessings wisely for the benefit of others. Any time the Lord returns and we are asked to render an account of our stewardship, we will hear Him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant… Come, share your master’s joy!”

It would not be irrational to think that one of the decisive questions on the Judgment Day could be, “What did you achieve with all the graces and talents with which I decorated you?” Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us look ourselves in the mirror to figure out what sort of gifts the Lord has bestowed on each one, so that we may become or continue to be One Body, One Spirit, One Family!

Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Katharine Drexel, Saint Michael the Archangel, St. José Gregorio Hernández, Pope Saint Pius X, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and St. Charbel, pray for us.

Yours in Christ!
Fr. Omar