“You’ve Got Talent!“
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
November 14-15, 2020
Scripture: Matthew 25: 31-46
Our parish is blessed with many talented people. Talents are a gift from God to accomplish our vocation. What is our vocation? Achieving salvation and building up the Body of Christ. No matter how many talents you think you have or how few you think you have, each one is vitally important; otherwise, God wouldn’t have given them to you. Your talents perform a vital function in the Body of Chris.
A lot of talents are time sensitive – you only have them for a little while before Mother Nature encroaches and they fade away. For example, you do not see many professional athletes in their 50’s…that just does not happen. You don’t see brain surgeons in their 90’s, now do you. Believe it or not, I had a very easy job as a chaplain in the U.S. Army. However, when I turned 60, the Army said, “Hey, you’re too old…get out. This isn’t a geriatric unit.” That was very disconcerting, because not being married, I had nobody to tell me what to do for the first time in 24 years. You mean I can grow my hair? It was very unsettling. So, what might you see in people who are in their 50’s and 90’s? You may see that they are wonderfully and deeply in love with God. That is our common vocation. He has endowed us all with the ability to be in love with Him and united with Him in this world and in the next.
All the other talents and abilities that He has given us come to their proper end. So, there is no need to be jealous of the talents of others. I used to always kid my evil departed twin brother who had two doctorate degrees, wrote textbooks, worked as an EMT, and was a scuba diver. He had a file cabinet filled with all these courses he had taken…not that I hold any resentment…No! He took all my spare body parts with him. No, I’m not resentful at all. You see, my brother’s vocation was different than mine. His vocation depended on what God wanted my brother to do compared to what he wanted me to do. It’s the same for everybody. Don’t compare your physical and intellectual abilities with others. All of our talents and abilities are to be used for the glory of God. The only thing I knew how to do was to show up for PT (physical training) formation for 24 years. I’m not the most talented man in the world, but He did give me the ability to love Him. Love is the one talent God is going to judge us on. He will ask: “How have you shown My love to the world? How have you responded to My love?” Bishop Sheen told the story of a street cleaner. This guy was the best street cleaner around. Somebody asked him, “Why do you clean the crevices? Nobody sees them…why do you bother?” The man answered, “Because God sees them.” Whether in the penthouse or outhouse, on Park Avenue or a park bench, we all have unique abilities. The talent we have in common is the ability to grow in God’s love and to be possessed by Him.
As with any talent or ability, it must be used or it atrophies. If Frankie doesn’t practice her music, it will fade away. Muscle mass will atrophy unless you keep exercising. We must do this no matter our status or vocation in life. Our talents require practice, concentration, and study. So, too, does love. You need to practice through prayer, mortification, spiritual readings, and the Sacraments. Very simple things to do, but very hard to put in to practice, because we don’t like to practice.
The biggest obstacle in growing spiritually are the excuses we make. “I don’t feel good about it.” “I don’t get anything out of the Mass.” “I don’t like the music.” “It’s too hot in here.” “It’s too cold in here.” Really? Everybody has an excuse; “I don’t like the Mass.” “I don’t like it in English” “I don’t like it in Spanish.” “I don’t like it in Latin.” Well, come to the 12:15 Mass. I’ve got two or three different languages going on there, so you needn’t worry. Sometimes, I would love to say, “I’m getting too old for this.” The Mass is not to you. The Mass is the offering of Christ on the Cross, always before the Father, pleading on our behalf until the end of time. So, the Mass is not to you; it is for you. It is not presented so that you can sit there in judgement; instead, it shows the constant prayer of Christ for you, and He asks you to become a part of it. When I offer the bread and wine of the Body and Blood of Christ, your human nature is represented. You are being offered with Christ on the altar to the Father just as the human nature of Mary is being offered on the cross. Spiritually, Mary and John the Apostle are at the foot of the Cross, and you are fulfilling their hopes by being there. The Mass is the Holy Sacrifice of our Lord and a representation of what lies in Heaven to the end of time. Mass is not an action to you; it’s the prayer of Christ for you. So, how can you say you don’t get anything out of it, or that you don’t like it; or that you don’t like the language in which it is spoken?
Some people say about their prayer life, “Oh, I don’t get anything from prayer.” All we are doing when we pray is trying to grow in God’s love. Love is always reaching out to the loved one and not to self. That’s why so few grow in the spiritual life. They think that they have to like something before they do it. Read Mother Theresa’s autobiography. She and the sisters cared for lepers. Did they like it? No, but was a gift to God. Loving God is a talent we all share. I will never be a good golfer. I will never be a brain surgeon…thank God, right? I will never be a great hockey player, although I have the teeth for it…I had my teeth knocked out while playing hockey. I’m not a Misfit; they took power tools away from me. I will never be a lot of things, but, I was given the talent to love God. And, that talent does not go away with time. It may lay dormant from misuse and abuse, but it never goes away. In order for that talent to grow, you do what you can through mortification, spiritual readings, and the Sacraments. You can love God as equally as any canonized Saint of Church. You are capable of that same depth of love. The means are all before you. How will you apply this message to your life? Will you use prayer, mortification, spiritual readings, and the Sacraments to grow in your love for God?