Thirty-three sunday in year A

Story of our talents

In today’s gospel, Jesus invites us to thank god for the gifts and talents that we received from him and multiply them for the glory of God through Christ our Lord.

Once a protestant minister, an Anglican pastor and a catholic priest met each other and they were talking about bats problem in their churches. The protestant minister said, “I think I have only one talent because I have bats problem in my church and I tried my best to chase them away but I could not do anything”. Then the Anglican pastor said, “I think I have only two talents because I have bats problem in my church too and I take them out of city and throw them but they keep coming and I do not know what to do” then they looked at the catholic priest and said, “we know you have bats problem in your church too” then the catholic priest said, “because of my five talents, I chased all the bats away from my church and I do not have any problem at all and they asked, “what did you do and how did you do it?” he looked at them and said, “I baptized all and they never came back”.

Today let us look at the talents that we have and develop them for the glory of god. No body can say that he does not have any talents or gifts. We are all special and unique in the sight of God and we are called in a special way to live our life praising and thanking God for our very human life.
When God called Moses to save the chosen people, he looked at god and said, “god I am a sinner and I do not know how to talk or lead people”. God smiled at him and said, “you are not going to do anything but through you, I am going to act and just be my instrument”. we sometimes may feel small and meaningless and at the same time, God who created the world out of nothing will and can make us strong and meaningful. All we have to do is just know the love and kindness of God our father through our every day life.

And knowing our human nature itself is a gift and talent. When we love and forgive others from our heart, then we may say that we begin to know the gift of God in our lives; and when we accept others with their conditions, then we may say that we begin to know the god-given talents in us.

Once a rabbi was walking along a lakeshore and saw a small insect struggling to get out of the water, so he took the insect out of the water and put it on the shore but the insect bit him and again jumped in the water and it began to struggle to get out of the water, and the rabbi again did the same. It went on and on, then a man came to the rabbi and said, “why do you want to help the insect that keeps on biting you”, then the Rabbi looked at him and said, “the nature of the insect is biting but the nature of human is helping”. when we help others in their need, then we may hear from the Lord saying, “well done good and trustworthy slave and you have been trustworthy in few things and I will put you in charge of many things”.

We are today asked to develop our talents and gifts because the Lord is coming. Yes, he may come at an unexpected time. He may come like a thief. About three years ago, when I was in a country parish, one day the house was broken into, and then on, I was kind of afraid to be alone in the rectory and one day, I called one of my friends and said about my problem and he said, “as long as you do not smile, no body can find you”
But let us keep on smiling, the Lord is coming, yes; he is coming to bless us with everlasting life. Amen.