"Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability". (Matthew 25:14)
Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is quoted as saying "God doesn’t give us more than we can handle". Likewise, Our Lord not only does not give us too many burdens he also gives us enough blessings and talents for our mission in life. However, small we feel our gifts are they are sufficient for us. We may never fully comprehend in this world how plentiful and great the gifts we have been given. Our talents and gifts were hand picked by Our Lord, "each in proportion to his own ability". Might we not spend more time focussing on the things Our Lord has given us and not on those He has not.
Might we “focus on the things we can do instead of the things we cannot”. Our Pastor spoke those words over a year ago and they have echoed over and over in my heart. As a person who used to be healthy for my childhood and only in the past 5 years has lost most of the use of my hands this was an important message for me. Due to a genetic condition that begins to cause physical deterioration in ones 20’s and 30’s, I have suffered many joint dislocations and have had to give up a practice in dentistry, the ability to drive and even to open a door myself. Others help me with everything. This has been a humbling experience and initially an experience that felt defeating. With the support of Our Lord He has shown me that even when your body seemingly begins to fall apart Our Lord still has given us enough strength to not only go on but have a meaningful life. A simple prayer I try and say daily has helped,
Lord help me to discern what you want me to do,
give me the strength of body and spirit to do it,
and the courage to follow it through. Amen
One of the many things Our Lord has given me is a deep Faith. With the help of Our Lady I have come to see that our purpose in life is not just to join her and her Son in Heaven but to enter the Kingdom with as many people as we can. I once was told that the role of a spouse is to get their mate into Heaven. I feel this is also true of parents. A soul who seeks perfection will bring many souls with it to heaven.
Jesus tells Saint Faustina,
Know this, My daughter: if you strive for perfection you will sanctify many souls; and if you do not strive for sanctity, by the same token, many souls will remain imperfect. Know that their perfection will depend on your perfection, and the greater part of the responsibility for these souls will fall on you. (diary 1165)
When we stand before our Lord what will He say. Might He say that He gave us a great many talents and blessings. If we have prayed only for ourselves and shared none of our blessings what will be His response? Might it be the same as the man who buried his one talent.
But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”’(Matthew 25: 26-30)
However if we choose to pray for others and give of our blessings will our Lord not bless us more. Indeed He says in the gospel today:
“Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”(Matther 25:21)
The Lord in His generosity has been showing me the beauty of this gospel. The children’s rosary is dedicating this year to renewal of family prayer. We are saying novenas to different saints asking them to chose a family, individual or priest to lead in their spiritual journey. The saints are then put on the inside of a read aloud children’s Bible and given to children and families. We also initially made some handmade bookmarks too with a saint on each. One of the members of our children’s rosary who is pursuing a vocation consecrated to Our Lord prayed a novena to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross many months ago. Recently a mission priest, Fr. Tucker, came to our Parish and gave me copies of a book he had written called the “Prayer of Christ Crucified”. I sent one of these copies to my friend. She wrote back that she was using this prayer daily and it was extremely helpful. She also asked me if Fr. Tucker could advise her on possible orders she might consider exploring. As a thank you to Fr. Tucker I sent him one of the handmade bookmarks with a saint on it. The bookmark which was randomly chosen had St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross on it. It was the Saint that my friend who had received so many blessings from Fr. Tucker had prayed to in a nine day novena. The kindness had come full circle. A prayer said for another person had brought blessings and direction back in far greater measure than was initially given. Our Lord does truly give you 100 fold of what we give in His name.
We are truly living in a blessed time. May we all hold onto the hope that we may all join our Lord and His mother in Heaven.
If we want to love then we should pray for our brothers and sisters.....
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