The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
When was the last time you got a wake-up call? St. Paul reminds us in today’s second reading to stay awake and sober rather than to numb ourselves (with things like excessive food, drink, sex, Netflix, sleep, etc.). And in our sobriety, the Gospel encourages us to stay faithful and diligent to the gifts and work entrusted to us.
A few years ago, I was teaching a theology of beauty unit to my high school dance class. I gave my students an old-fashioned show-and-tell prompt: share one of your favorite songs or pieces of visual art with the class. A student chose a piece from Monet’s famous “Water Lilies” series. Among many details, she quietly shared how Monet created these famous paintings as he was going blind. This cut me to the heart and my eyes welled with tears. He was losing his ability to paint, and yet he still continued his craft. Even into darkness, he stayed courageous and open to the gifts given to him.
At the time, I had strong reservations about staying in the dance world. I didn’t want to let myself truly love the craft I had long cherished. I dreaded the normal human aging process that would “take it away from me.” I held onto painful memories of people and things dying or being taken, so I wanted to reject my gift first. Master, I was afraid, so I buried it. When the world warns us to protect our hearts with walls of self-preservation, the Living Word of God encourages: “Let me show you a still more excellent way” (1 Cor 13). Where fear and self-preservation imprison us, Jesus proclaims that to be joyful and to be free, we must give ourselves away. It’s the paradox of the Gospel: if you lose your life, you will find it!
Thanks be to God for His merciful wake-up calls. I now live in a different state teaching at a Christian studio where my responsibility is to lead students to encounters with Jesus through dance. Our gifts are never really about us. When we let our gifts be shared, they bless others and multiply. Our gifts are not taken – they transform into something more beautiful.
Here are some questions to ponder:
Is there an area where I am asleep or numbed in fear?
Is there a talent I’ve buried in my heart?
Do I desire to wake up even more to the life God has for me here and now?
Do I need to ask Him for a wake-up call?
In the work entrusted to me, how can I offer procrastination or workaholic tendencies to the Lord and invite Him to help me be truly diligent?
Am I offering those particularly mundane tasks to the Lord?
Do I share my connections, stories, and "pro-tips" generously with others to build up the Body of Christ, or do I withhold my “secrets” in order to get ahead in my career?
Is there a talent from childhood that I’ve dismissed as worthless?
How might the Holy Spirit be quietly inviting me to rediscover wonder?
Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. // Henry Van Dyke.