Mother St. Theresa of Calcutta once said; “God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.”
On my first time to visit United States thirty years ago, we had a provincial assembly at Notre Dame, the provincial at the time, what he asked me to do made me sit up straight. He invited me to give a talk to two hundred some American Holy Cross priests, about my experience as an indigenous Holy Cross living with American expatriates. Everything about me and within me was screaming, oh no, what am I going to say, will they even listen, I felt like telling him please save me from the embarrassment. One priest who realized my predicament, just told me Fulgens you can do it, try. I ended up powering through it well.
Using Our Blessings Well
Today gospel presents us with a parable that reveals something important on how God works his plan and purpose with us. It mentions that God trusted his servants before setting out on a journey, left them with money to invest, and he expected them to be accountable and faithful in making profit for him to collect on his return. The parable spells out that on his return he rewards those who were faithful and punishes the one who sat idly.
Fear to take risk can be a debilitating force preventing us to make the best of the blessings, the talents and the gifts we have received from God.
All of us have received blessings from God with the expectations that we use those gifts to serve God and people. However, fear, or laziness, or indifference, can creep into our life and probably give birth to an attitude; "It is not worthy trying”.
He Only Requires Us to Try
As Mother Theresa points out, God does not require us to succeed, he only requires us to try, to try love as he loves, to be generous and courageous as we use those gifts and resources that the Lord has given us for carrying out his ministry.
In our use of our gifts, we may fail and make mistakes. Well, even the parable seems to indicate that failure is preferable to fearful inactivity.
The Lord entrusts us with gifts, and we have the freedom to put them to use. He accompanies each gift with grace and spiritual energy, the Holy Spirit that enables us to use them diligently. We can choose to duck for cover and avoid risking our generosity, our availability to those in need, being steadfast witnesses to the gospel values, all because, these place tremendous demands on us as Christians. In so doing rejecting Jesus as the people of his time.
Staying Diligent
Ducking for cover is being unfaithful for the lot we have received from God.
In the sayings of the Desert Fathers, Abba Anthony says: "A monk must be aware of the demon of spiritual sloth, apathy or laziness in personal spiritual development.” Can we pray that we may strive to trust in God’s grace to make good use of the gifts He has bestowed on us as way to advance his kingdom. To everyone who has will be given more, but inaction will be met with loss of even what we thought we had.
- Father Fulgen's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. You can view the Mass (at the 30-minute mark) on the Family Rosary YouTube page.
- To join the Rosary and Mass Livestream, visit the Family Rosary YouTube or Facebook page at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, Monday – Friday. Consider inviting others to join too! (*If you are not a member of Facebook and a signup window appears, simply select the X at the top of the pop-up message and continue to the livestream.)
