‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents.
But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. (…) But his master re plied, “You wicked and lazy slave!” (…) So, take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 25:14-18, 26, 28-30
No one came into this world by chance. The child of a prostitute who was conceived from sex for hire, the child of sexual violence or rape, the child of a one-night stand, the child of an "accident", all these children were called to life and came into the world because God in his infinite and mysterious providence willed it so.
The child conceived from the love of a man and a woman who are promised to each other for life and are faithful to each other, is not superior in dignity to any of the above. God loves them all equally. There are no illegitimate children where God is concerned, all are legitimate children of the Father of everything and everyone. They may not have the love of their earthly parents, but they never lack or never will lack the love of the Father of their parents, God.
To gain a life or to lose a life
For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Matthew 16:25-26
It is often said about those who work and are always on the go that they are "making a living". In this sense, making a living is synonymous to earning life; but seeking sustenance for life and life itself are not the same thing. Just as living and being alive are not the same thing.
Those who waste their lives (time and energy) looking for material means to live seem to be no different from the rest of the living beings on this planet. Gazelles, lions, tigers, and leopards, all living beings spend their days looking for means to stay alive or to survive. That is why animals do not live, as they do not exercise any power or control over their own lives, they survive or are alive.
Unlike other living beings, human beings have the power and control over their own lives, they can make of it whatever they want, they can turn it into a heaven or a hell, depending on how they manage the time and energy given to them.
‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ (…) “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, (…) you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So, it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’ Luke 12: 15-17, 19-21
There are people who accumulate enough assets in their lifetime to sustain themselves for another two or three more lifetimes. But are they going to have those lives or even increase in years the life they have, because they have accumulated more than they need for a lifetime? No… So, we can conclude that life is not about earning a living.
Life is not about getting fatter, it is about getting thinner; life is not about winning, but about losing. Life is not a centripetal force, swirling inwards, pulling the wool over one’s eyes, but rather a centrifugal force: it is sharing, giving out goods and even giving oneself to others, consuming oneself, expending oneself for a cause. Therefore, anachronistically, life is lost when it is withheld and gained when it is given away.
Your life is not about yourself, you were born for a mission
For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45
For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. Luke 22:27
No one asked Jesus what was the purpose of his life, but if they had, that would have been the answer He would have given.
For others, my life is an absolute value, but for myself, it is a relative one; the reason I live is absolute for me, because my life does not revolve around me. If I were the reason for my own life, living would mean surviving, that is, maintaining vital functions, preserving life. But this is not the truth about life; life is time and energy dedicated to a cause. Human life is not self-referential.
Beethoven's life revolved around music; Picasso's life revolved around painting; Einstein's life revolved around physics; Nelson Mandela's life revolved around equality between blacks and whites. The life of Jesus, the Son of God, revolved around the salvation of humanity.
No one is happier than the one who is useful, and no one is more useful than the one who loves and understands that to love is to want and seek the good of others, as St. Thomas Aquinas stated so rightly.
Talents are like the gifts of the Holy Spirit: they are directed both towards your personal gain, in the pursuit of happiness and self-realization, and towards service to the community; and it is to the extent that you are useful to the community that you validate yourself. Those who are useless to others are useless even to themselves.
Talents, the implements of life
"The worst misfortune that can happen to you, young people, is that you are of no use to anyone and that your life serves no purpose." Raoul Follereau
God, the architect of our life, has devised a project for each one of us. No one comes into the world without a plan. From our interaction with Him in prayer and with the signs of the times, we must discover what project God has for us and for which He has equipped us with sufficient talents to carry it out and make it feasible in our lifetime.
So instead of envying the talents of others, as teenagers often do by filling their bedroom walls with posters of "idols," let us turn to ourselves and find out what our talents are. There may be some hidden talent that we never thought we had....
Being envious of the talents of others is equivalent to hiding our own talents, all the while blaming God for unfairly giving more talents to others than to us. God cannot be unfair; he gives enough talents to make our lives viable and worth living. When we are in front of a window, we can either focus our gaze at the window itself, or look beyond the window at the beautiful scenery.
What will be impossible to do is to focus both at the window and at the scenery simultaneously. When we focus at the scenery, the window will be out of focus, and similarly, when we focus at the window, the scenery will be out of focus. This is to say that when we are focussing on the talents of others, we are putting our own out of focus like as if they did not exist.
We cannot beat others at being themselves. But at being ourselves nobody can beat us. So, we must not pretend to be who we are not meant to be and will never be.
Just as the situation creates the thief, so it is great challenges that create great men when they step forward and take risks in trying new things, and it is only in so doing that they know whether or not they are up to the task. It was the Second World War that created Winston Churchill, and so it is with all great men in human history.
No pain no gain, talent that is not used is talent irretrievably lost. Talents that are not discovered or used do not lead us to the purpose God has set for us, and if we do not reach that goal, our life is futile. What is useless is garbage, and what is garbage is burned off. That is what hell is all about.
Conclusion – The aim in life is not to be happy, but to be useful. So, anyone who does not find his self-realization in rendering a service to society, is both useless to society and to himself, and will inevitably be unhappy.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC