GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 27TH AUGUST 2016
SATURDAY OF THE 21ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
(MEMORIAL OF ST. MONICA)
1ST READING: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
PSALM: Psalm 33:12-13, 18-21
GOSPEL: Matthew 25:14-30
THEME: TALENTS
The poorest of persons is not the one without a penny but the one with an unused talent. If you have the chance to choose between a sack of diamonds and a talent, go for a talent, for with a talent you can have more than ten sacks of diamonds.
A talent is a seed of greatness, given by God and inherent in everyone. The difference between a fulfilled and an unfulfilled person is that the former activates talents and the latter leaves talents latent. A talented person does not stand in line; he stands out. Talents, when used to the full, make one unique.
In our Gospel text, a man on a journey distributed talents to three servants of his, according to each person’s ability. Two of the servants made good use of their talents and they were rewarded. The third servant was unproductive and this spelt his doom. Jesus concluded the narration of the parable with the statement, “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away” (Mt. 25:29).
There are many people out there lamenting that they are poor. Well, lamentation does not bring one out of poverty. Perhaps, what we need to do is to dig out our buried talents. The word “dig” can serve as an acronym in this context (D.I.G.):
DISCOVER: Each one of us needs to “discover” what is inside him/herself, i.e. our God-given talents.
INVEST: The next step is to “invest” our time, efforts and everything into cultivating the talents that we have discovered.
GAIN: We “gain” innumerable blessings, favours and breakthroughs when we have discovered and done good investments with our talents.
The fundamental reason given by the servant who hid his talent, in our Gospel text, was fear. Perhaps, instead of entertaining fear in our hearts, let us step out in faith and make good use of our talents. It is worth the risk and adventure.
Prayer: Eternal Father, I thank you for every talent that you have given to me through the power of your Spirit. I choose this day to step out in faith and exercise each one of them to the full. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).