So they received talents from their Master. And the first one, who got five talents, invested it and doubled the investment. While the last fellow, who got one talent, buried it and got nothing but the wrath of an angry master.
Like those servants, we too receive many talents. Oh, I don't mean the Palestinian currency of a talent (which by the way, was worth about $6,000 dollars). No, I think Jesus was talking about something more than economics, and the kinds of talents he’s really talking about are worth more than money can buy.
For you have been given all kinds of talents.
There are those you were born with. Your beautiful eyes, or long silky hair or general good looks. Or your intelligence. Your ability to figure things out so much more quickly than everyone else.
And then there are the talents you acquired while you were growing up. Like an easy-going disposition and the ability to get along with just about everybody. Or a sense of self-confidence mixed with humility that has allowed you to get so much done in this life.
And then there are the talents which you have worked so hard for. Like your marriage or your vocation or that lifelong friendship. Or the fact you have been such a great mother or father. Or that job, which for thirty-seven years you worked and sacrificed to make a success.
All those are the talents you have been given by God. And what have you done with them?
If you have used them for your own selfish pleasure or tried to work them solely for your own good, you are like the man who buried the talent in his own back yard, where under the cold dark soil of winter, it just sat there and nothing came of it. And some day, God forbid, I’m afraid your master might send you to that place where there is nothing but wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But if you have sought to give it away (all those talents) to use them to love…then you have discovered a remarkable thing…that the talent given grows…it multiplies and will, someday, be returned to the God who first gave it to you doubled, or tripled or showing a return of a hundred fold.
It’s what Emily discovered when she went as a new bride with her Ensign husband to Gaeta, a small town in southern Italy where the flagship for the sixth fleet docked. It wasn’t exactly a Naval base, but the young wives of the young sailors would often rent an apartment in Gaeta, and the wives would wait (sometimes with the kids) while the ship went out to sea.
Problem was, because it was such a top secret thing, not even the wives would know how long the guys would be gone, and that was particularly tough on the younger ones.
As Emily had experienced innumerable times over three long years. But she pushed through the anxiety and she and the three kids were now used to Gerry being gone, sometimes for almost a month. Kind of used to it, that is.
You see, I used to go down to Gaeta as my apostolate when I was a Deacon and then for the first year I was a student priest and say Mass for the Americans in a small Italian Church. One week I saw Emily and she looked a bit hassled, so I said a prayer for her. The next week I saw her again, and she was, to be honest, a mess. Her hair was straggly and she just stared straight ahead while the kids ran around and screamed at each other under the pews. So I asked her after Mass how she was doing. She started to cry and told me that Gerry had been out to sea for three weeks and that she was at her wits end with the kids and the uncertainty and…she just cried. I tried to console her, but I knew it wasn’t going to help a lot. So I went back to Rome and prayed for her.
The next week, I saw Emily again. I was surprised that she looked so different, like a different person. Smiling and chatting with her pew mates, the kids all dressed up in their Sunday best and sitting there like little angels. So, after Mass I said “Emily, did Gerry get back this week?” “No,” she said, “but something wonderful happened.”
Last Tuesday, she told me, was the worst day I ever had. I was just getting ready to call the travel agency to get a ticket home when the door bell rang. It was the girl next door…she was very young and had been married for just two months ago and this was the first time her husband was out to sea. She was crying and whining and in the mood I was in I just wanted to slap her and tell her to go away.
But for some reason I didn’t. With teeth gritted, I invited her to come in and got her a cup of tea. And then I sat there and stared at her, (thinking to myself: you don’t know what its like to have three screaming kids and you’ve only been doing this for two months and you don’t know what suffering is…). But didn’t yell at the poor kid…rather, I sat there and I tried to smile, and before I knew it, I started to sympathize with her and to listen to her poor sad broken little heart…until after a few minutes (or maybe more than a few minutes) I started comforting her and all at once, for the first time in weeks, all my problems seemed so much smaller. In giving her comfort, I became comforted.
And ever since then, I don't really need to know when Gerry is coming back. Because I just learned an incredible lesson. When you love others, when you give it away, it comes backs a hundredfold. And you know Father, I’m really at peace.
So, give it away, every talent you ever received. Invest it in others, with love, and maybe you will hear the master’s words someday: 'Well done, my good and faithful servant…come share in your master’s joy.”
