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This Sunday we hear Jesus’ parable about the three servants and the money entrusted to them. The first and second servants receive their talents and accrue more by trading, delighting their master. He trusted them, and they complemented that trust. The third servant, out of fear and laziness, did not invest his single talent; thus, he betrayed the master’s trust and was banished to the wilderness where there is wailing and grinding of teeth.
The essence of this parable is our gifts—charisms, talents, money, relationships, etc.—all come from God. These gifts are not to be used as means for their own end or our own self-gratification, lest we forfeit our merit. We humbly use them for the Glory of God, the mission of his Church, and the salvation of souls.
As of writing this bulletin entry, I am reading Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain. In it, he expresses his gratitude for the supernatural and natural graces God gifted him. He laments the fact he did not convert fully at the time of his Baptism; he still lived for himself, even though he celebrated the sacraments frequently. Merton wanted to be a renowned writer and scholar. Now, as Merton acknowledges, there is nothing wrong with these aspirations per se, but he was living for his own glorification and not God’s. The fear is if we surrender ourselves to God, we might lose out on certain prospects; but in the case of Merton and all others, he blesses us even more. Merton did not become a scholarly professor at Columbia; he discerned God’s will and became a Cistercian monk. Merton did not lose his love of reading and writing by doing this; no, God amplified Merton’s talents within his vocation: The Seven Storey Mountain became one of the best spiritual works of the 20th century and continues to inspire others today!
I think Merton’s early story is a good case-in-point for what Jesus is getting at: he gives us everything we possess, and yet we fail to invest them in the economy of salvation; we store up our treasures on earth, but not in heaven. Truly, all is vanity, as Ecclesiastes 1:1 proclaims—unless we live for the Kingdom of God and use what the Lord has given us to live out the missionary life of the Church.
God gives us the power to be trustworthy in small responsibilities. Fidelity in such tasks, as the Gospel tells, will result in greater responsibilities. This is not something to fear; rather, it is an invitation to come closer to God, who increases the efficacy of our gifts and the delight of exercising them for his glory. God has already entrusted each and every one of us a certain calling: our vocation.
We find our unique responsibilities in our vocation, which, regardless of what practical form it assumes, entails self-sacrifice. This sacrifice of self is the essence of the economy of salvation: if one is to find himself, he must lose himself and gain Christ. Whether it is a sacramental marriage of husband and wife, the call to holy orders or religious life, even the mystical marriage of Christ and the Church in whom we all participate, we see our vocation as an invitation to the wedding banquet of last week’s Gospel. It is a gift-call that, as the adage goes, keeps on giving. As the American Church concludes its National Vocations Awareness week, let us entrust our vocations—and the discovery of them for those discerning—to God, so we may invest the total gift of self in the divine economy, and thus come to share in the master’s joy.
In Christ,
Evan
