Sunday 33 (A-2005): Ability + talent = potential + fulfillment

Mt. 25:14-30

When I was seventeen, I was accepted for a good university in the UK because I got good high school results. I had applied to do music and languages at this university.

The bishop of my home diocese in Scotland at the time heard about this and promptly invited me not to accept the invitation to the university, but instead to go to Rome as a seminarian. He knew I had been thinking of the priesthood.

As a seventeen year-old would, I thought, “Goodness me! What an opportunity! The university would be great, but Rome would be even greater!”

So, fortified with such selfless motivation, off I went to Rome!

Later on, however, I idly wondered if the abilities I had might not have been better developed at university.

I was sharing this thought with a brother priest the other evening and, after seeing me debate with a few others, he said rather winsomely, “and you wonder if you might have done better at university?”

Our own ideas about our natural abilities, however positive and encouraging they may be, are nothing in comparison with what God has in mind for those abilities.

Today’s parable shows a distinction between the natural abilities of the servants and the “talents” given to them by the Master. We are born with our abilities, but the talents are gifts of grace given to us in the course of life by the love of God.

The chiefest of those gifts is Christ Himself, literally handed over to us in Holy Communion.

As the Lord gave me the gift of the priesthood, he gives us all gifts of grace, not to suffocate and restrict our natural abilities, but to develop them to the full.

Gifts of grace are not given in a way that juxtaposes them in a kind of parallel and unrelated way to our natural abilities. God as creator gives us our natural abilities. God as Redeemer gives us gifts of grace. It is the same God.

Just as the divine person of Jesus unites himself to his human nature to bring it to perfection, so the gifts of grace given to us seek union with our natural abilities to bring them also to perfection.

So, there is no opposition between nature (our abilities) and grace (God’s gifts to us).

This should teach us something very profound and exciting about our relationship with God. Today, natural abilities are rightly applauded, but the realities of grace are ignored or are even suspected of being contrary to our nature and freedom.

That cannot be the case! Because the God who gives us nature also gives us grace precisely so that our natural abilities can reach their fullest potential.

Do we truly realize the impact and promise of the gifts of grace we have been given? Think of the sacraments you have received, of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, of the Bible, of the Church herself, of our forefathers the saints who took all these gifts to heart and blossomed in their humanity!

How much do you personally treasure what the Lord has given you?

Had I gone to university, I doubt that my human capacities, even in languages, music and the rest, would have developed as much as they have through the gift of the priesthood.

I am, of course, very far from perfect: I have failed miserably all too often and have suffered and wept because of it. But the God who called me has been faithful to me and has given me hope and brought my human abilities to a level that alone, depending on merely human resources, I could never have done.

Had I “buried in the ground” my call to priesthood, I wonder with trepidation what would have become of me, today and on the Last Day.

Christ does not give us himself to constrict us. Baptism is not a strait-jacket, a mouth-gag or chains on our feet. No, it takes possession, He takes possession, of all those great human abilities we have and unleashes their full potential.

In your lives, maybe you wonder, “What am I doing? What is the great potential that I could have fulfilled? What if I had taken another road?”

There is nothing unusual in that, but remember that the wicked servant incurred wrath because of his fear to develop what he actually had in front of him, under his nose.

We must not be afraid of the passionate marriage in our lives between our natural abilities and the supernatural gifts we receive. On the contrary, like the good servants, we need to engage fully in that marriage without any fear that God will enslave our humanity.

He will liberate and unleash within us, and bring to its highest possible fulfillment, all the potential of our beloved humanity.

Look at the Apostles. The human abilities of most of them were poor. Yet, when drawn into the inner circle of Jesus, through their personal encounter with him and the grace and power flowing from his resurrection, they conquered the earth for him!

The impact of Christ upon their humanity was not destructive but transformative. Indeed, He made them realize for the first time who they really were; He unlocked for them, without recrimination, the mystery of their own identity.

Only in Christ can we fully be who we truly are and be so with everlasting peace and joy.

What Jesus did for them, he will do no less for each of us. Are you afraid of this encounter with Him? Or are you afraid of fully being who you truly are?

Can you not see that He trusts the deep, deep goodness within you to the point of literally handing himself over to you in Holy Communion? How can you doubt yourself when He trusts you and entrusts his very self to you?

Christ would not give you himself if he did not trust your ability to be his good and faithful servant, indeed, to be made his equal in the joy of his kingdom. He knows you are capable of this, so he holds nothing back.

From my own life I know that Christ does not suffocate my humanity, but opens me up to share in the infinite holiness and strength of his own divine love.

Yes, I have been a sinner and I have been weak, but the Lord knows better my real potential and is patiently bringing it to fulfillment.

If he has done this for me, I can assure you he will do no less for each one of you.

Is that not what life is about?

Is that not the Good News?

Is that not the Kingdom of Heaven?

Msgr. Peter Magee

Sunday, November 13^th, 2005

Annunciation Parish, DC: 8.30 am