Shlomo Lkhoon,
This was e-mailed to me by my former pastor. I thought that the board would find it interesting and as Catholics in general thought provoking.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

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Sixth Sunday after Holy Cross:

Mpls. October 20, 2002

Mt. 25:14-30

The Parable of the Talents presents to us a promise and a warning. It is a reminder that the use of our talents demonstrates our faithfulness to God. It is not what we have or how much we have that counts, but what we do with what we have of time, talents and treasures. God gives us generous gifts and expects us to use them wisely and multiply them according to his plan.

The Master in today's Gospel “entrusted his possessions,” to his three servants they don't belong to them, but to their master. Their duty was to invest them wisely. When we come into this life, we bring nothing and we take nothing with us. So, we cannot claim anything our own, it all belongs to God, and we have to leave it behind us after we leave this life. Even “your children are not yours,” said Kalil Gibran, “they are the children of life,” God gives us responsibility over them, and they in turn will do the same. So no one of us should boast about what we have, but we should take pride in what we do with what we have for the glory of God, who entrusts us with everything.

The master distributed his possessions “to each according to his ability.” God never gives us more than we can handle, and he even helps us carrying this responsibility. He knew that one of his servants can handle five talents and another two and another one, so he distributed them on this basis. Of course the first two servants were rewarded because they acted wisely, while the third one was punished because of his unfaithfulness. He also expects from us as much as we can handle, no less and no more.

The three servants represent each one of us who must use our various gifts. One day, we will all stand before the throne of Christ and we will have to settle account with him. To one of us he will say, “I gifted you with the wisdom of teaching or good voice or long healthy life, or with a lot of wealth and money or with gifts of compassion, kindness and generosity,” how have you used them for my service? Did you multiply them or kept them the same or lost them?

We must keep reminding ourselves my friends, that what we have, rather everything that we have is from God, including the breath that we take and the life that is within us. Ethel Andrus once said, “What I spent is gone. What I kept is lost; but what I gave away will be mine forever.” The human person is like a candle, no good unless it burns itself for the good of others.

What God expects of us is that we quit talking, speculating, and thinking about the talents he has given us and to do something with them. It may be risky and challenging, but God will bless and help us even at times when we fail in using our talents. At least we should try. Use your talents my friends, lest they will die.

The old saying goes this way: “Say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.” There are so many people that are afraid to join a choir or a club or a movement, because they don't want to take the challenge, so they back away. Like the unfaithful servant in the Gospel, there are many people who refuse to use their talents or money, because they are afraid to fail or to be criticized by others. And before they know it, their days and years are gone and their talents are dead with them forever. They were unworthy to carry those gifts and they will be punished like the useless servant in today's Gospel.

As wise Christian stewards, we must do all in our power in order to make difference in this world, not with what we don't know or have, but with what has been gifted to us. Each one of us has 24 hours a day. Each one of us has one or many talents. Each one of us has a certain amount of money. What are we doing with them? What marks or legacy would I want to have now or after I die?

Gibran Khalil Gibran once said, “It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding. I am so proud of parishioners who see that some things needs to be done and they do it, whether cleaning a table or the snow or volunteering to work in the office or sin in the choir or count the money or do the church accounting or play a music instrument or to take the mail to the post office or help cook or usher or serve on the altar or teach or fix the parishes computers or serve when and where service is needed or come once a week or a month and volunteer for any kind of help that is needed around the church.

Our parish is so blessed with so many generous people who share their time and talents and treasures so generously.

However, these are still the minorities in the parish. They say that 20% of parishioners do or support the 80% of the church's work or expenses. Why not the opposite? Each one of us is a member of the Body of Christ, and must be an active member, so that the body may be healthy.

Each one of us should ask himself and herself today, “how much have I contributed this week of my time, talents and treasure for the glory of God, whether toward the church or a charitable organization or to a poor family that you know? Take few minutes to look at your agenda and checkbook and see where you are spending your time and treasures? It really hurts to see a Maronite in Texas give $13 million toward a university, but not helping even with a small amount establish a Maronite mission in his city. Guess what? God helped establish a great parish there without his help. The question is, “where will he receive his reward from at the end, the university or God?

Needless to say, that there is no better place on earth to invest your time, talents or treasures than in the Church. God has placed a sacred responsibility in our hands to use it for the service of others who are less privileged than we are. As Americans we have a double responsibility toward the poor, because we are only 1/10th of the world's population, yet we control 40% of the world's recourses. We have responsibility to help our brothers and sisters in Lebanon, especially the Maronites and the Christians, and we have responsibility to help the rest of the world as well.

* It is sad to see that statistic over the years have shown that Christians are not as generous as they should be. The Mormons for example give the most in the United States, up to 7% of their income, but Catholics fall almost at the bottom, less than 2% of their income goes to the Church and charity. I will be happy if each one of us in this parish gave only 3 or 4% of our time, talents and treasures.

In order for the church to grow my brothers and sisters, it needs the unconditional support of all of us. St Paul tells us, “God loves a cheerful giver.” A giving person is a happy person, because he or she has a grateful heart. They receive thankfully from God and they give cheerfully in thanksgiving. St. John tells us that we love because God loved us first. And yes, we give because God gave us first. No matter how much we give back to God we can never thank him sufficiently. His generosity is beyond measure or comprehension.

When we give to God, let us give Him what he deserves from us and not what is left over from our spending. And as you give, don't look at your giving as dues, but as an offering. There is a spiritual benefit in giving to the church, in support charity, and in helping the poor…

When you give as a Christian you should give out of love and you will feel the joy of giving. Khalil Gibran said, “There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.”

Gibran also said this in speaking about giving, “All you have shall some day be given; Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors.”

I hope that all of us will learn a lesson from today's Gospel, and act wisely like the first two servants in the gospel, so that one day we may hear from God these beautiful and comforting words, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Come share your master's joy.” (Mt. 25:21

May the joy of God be yours now and forever.

Fr. sharbel Maroun