The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
2 Maccabees 7:1,20-31
Psalm 17:5-6,8,15
Luke 19:11-28

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

To everyone who has, more will be given. . .

The older translations of this passage are so much more profound because they use the word talent rather than coin. And in modern times we understand talents as something very different from coins, and it makes this parable even easier to fathom.

Everything we have, we have as a gift from a generous God. Everything that has come to us has come to us at little cost compared with the cost of our redemption. Nothing belongs to us because we cannot hold onto it forever. If many of us traced our ancestry back, we would find that we are the direct relatives of fabulously wealthy men and women. How many of us have anything to show for it?

Our talents are given us, lent to us for our time on Earth to be used for His glory. They are not ours because they will be translated when we are no longer here. But we are expected to use them and to produce more. We are expected to invest them and return a harvest of souls bound for salvation. One of the great tragedies of humankind would be not to use these wonderful gifts in the proper way.

So, as we go about our daily chores and our daily activities, let's think about how we can use the gift of cooking, or cleaning, or writing, or listening, or whatever we may be blessed by. Let us consider carefully how we might best offer it back to God through aiding our fellow men.

- JuandelaCruz (sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)

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posted by joachim at 6:33 AM