733 James I. Harrison Jr. Parkway East - Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35405

Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

Be A Good And Faithful Servant

Preached on Sunday, November 19, 2017

 

Most people do not own their own business ... and have people working for them.

Most people are employees ... who work for an owner or a boss.

 

But consider for a minute what it would be like ...

if you were the owner of a company and had many people working for you.

What would that be like? What would be your cares and concerns?

 

You’d be the one to do the hiring of employees based on your vision and your plans for the company ... and you’d be the one to retain or release your workers ...

based on the way they carried out your plans.

 

You’d be the one to approve employee time sheets and employee expense reports and complete an annual appraisal report of each employee’s job performance.

 

You’d be the one to wonder:

if your employees were doing their job when you’re not there to watch them … and if they’re giving the best they have to offer or giving less than their best.

 

You see, as an employee ... it’s tempting to say to yourself

“Oh, it’s ok ... that’s the company’s problem .”

 

But, when you’re the boss … you are the company.

 

Bosses need good employees in order to run their business ...

and will gladly pay them if they do their part to make the business a success.

 

Regardless of a person’s age or race or color or creed, if an employee brings in a return on investmentyou as the Boss would be well pleased.

 

But, if an employee does not contribute to the success of your business … being lazy and not making good use of their time/talents, as boss, you’d not be pleased.  

 

Well, it’s the very same way ... with God … for He is the Boss of us all!

 

God knows the work that wants to be done to build up His Kingdom on Earth

and He knows the gifts and talents it will take to do that ... so He gives those gifts to people and He expects them to use them fully to accomplish His goal!      

 

Those who use their gifts to serve God in building up the Body of Christ

      will be rewarded.

 

But those who do not use their gifts and in effect bury them

will be thrown out and punished.

 

Many people today seem to think ... that they’re their own boss ...

   and they don’t report to anybody.

 

Well, while there’s nothing wrong with having good individual goals in your life ... we must never forget the overriding goal we received on the day of our Baptism to get to Heaven and take as many other people with us as we can!

 

God sent His Son to us to redeem all people.        And having accomplished this ...

He expects us to participate in the ongoing work of redemption ...

by using our talents and abilities  ...

to build up the Body of Believers during our lifetime on earth.

 

There’s so much work to be done!

 

Every day ... people are dying ... many people who never knew the Lord ...

  and many people who’ve turned away from the Lord.

 

As baptized disciples of Jesus Christ, part of our Job Description is to invest ourselves in the important work of gathering everyone together in God’s family

... here ... so that we can all be together ... in the here-after.

 

Do you realize that?    You see:

It’s not just about you fulfilling your goal of playing for Alabama.

It’s not just about you reaching your goal of winning a political position.

It’s not just about you attaining your goal of becoming Company President.

It’s not just about you acquiring your goal of earning $1M and retiring early.

 

It’s about using the gifts and talents you’ve been given ... all along the way to not only accomplish your goals ... but to also accomplish God’s goal ... which as I said ... is to build up the Kingdom of God here on earth.

 

Jesus speaks of this important mission in our Gospel today as He ...

who is the Master ... calls in the Servants to settle accounts with them.

 

Notice how He addresses them:

 

To the first two, who invested their talents and brought Him a return,

Jesus refers to each of them asmy” good and faithful servant ...

thereby affirming his personal relationship with them ...

promising they would soon share in His personal joy!

 

But to the third one, who did not invest his talent and bring Him a return,

Jesus refers to him asyou” wicked lazy servant ...

thereby declaring that his personal relationship with him is severed ...

he was no longer “my” servant ... but “you” wicked, lazy servant.

 

And what was his destiny?

 

Jesus says, “Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,

   where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

 

Wow!    Why did that happen?

 

Because he buried his talents and didn’t them to accomplish his master’s plan.

 

So there’s 2 very important things to note here:

  1. God does not want us to bury our talents, and
  2. God wants us to use our talents to accomplish His Plan: the redemption of souls.

 

For example:

If God’s given you a good memory ...

it wasn’t so you could use it just to make a fortune gambling at the Blackjack table.

 

If God has given you good health ...

It  wasn’t so you could just go vacationing around the world.

 

No, those gifts were given for you to build up the Kingdom of God.

 

Have you ever had that sinking feeling that you’ve wasted time when you could have been doing something productive? Perhaps you’ve spent too much time surfing the Internet … or playing games ... or watching television … or sleeping.

 

I have!    Even though the proper use of these things can be renewing ...

overuse of them can make them real time wasters

 

Instead of doing something productive, many people veg out and watch 3 to 5 hours of TV or computer a day … wasting time that they’ll never have again!

 

Other time wasters include excessive sleeping, excessive playing of video games, puzzles, spending great amounts of time reading fiction and magazines or any inordinate  amount of time spent on your work or sport or hobby or interest.

 

The question we need to constantly ask ourselves is,

“Is there something else I could be and should be doing with my time?”

 

What would my Big Boss say?

Am I investing my God-given talents ... to build up His Kingdom on earth?

 

It’s likely that God is calling you to spend your time in more fruitful ways.

There’s so much to be done in the short time that we’re given.

 

So, the question that we need to keep asking ourselves is,

“What part am I supposed to play in this wonderful endeavor?”

 

Picture yourself as you really area servant working for the MasterGod!

 

Jesus is calling us to shake off all laziness and fully invest ourselves in the work at hand so that we’ll be able to show Him how fully we’ve used the gifts He has given us ... in our Family ... in our Church ... in our Job and in the Community.

 

One thing is for sure … there will be an accounting!

 

In our Second Reading today, St. Paul warns us saying,

“For you yourselves know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

 

And he gives us this advice,

Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.”

 

Yes the Master is sure to come and settle accounts with us; so we need to be ready.

 

Each of us has received different gifts from God. Jesus indicated this in His parable by pointing out that one servant got 5 talents, another got 2 talents and a third got just 1 talent.       So, we all get different types and amounts of gifts.

 

But notice that the Master in the parable was well pleased to get 2 talents of profit from the second servant, even though that was much less than the 5 talents of profit that he received from the first servant.

 

God didn’t expect 5 talents from the one to whom He gave just 2.

No, He only expects each person to make the best use of what they’ve been given.

 

We don’t need to compare ourselves with otherswhether they have more or less than we have … our job is simply to use what we’ve been given the best we can.

 

Not many of us are capable of doing what John Paul II did. (serving 27 years as Pope)

Nor are many of us able to lead the life that Mother Teresa did. (poorest of the poor)

They were graced with special gifts, for a special purpose, and they used them fully.

 

But no matter what our gifts are, we’re called to make the best use of them.

 

If you were the Boss of your own company, you’d want your employees to use their talents and abilities to do their job.

 

And if they didn’t, you’d have to relieve them of their duties and get someone else to do the job.

 

It’s the same way with God.

He wants us to use the gifts He’s given us to bring about His Kingdom on earth.

 

Perhaps now would be a good time to take an inventory of your gifts

and ask how many of them you’re using … not just for your business,

but for building up the Church … the Body of Christ on earth.

 

I read a disappointing statistic ... that only 34% of the Catholics who are attending church take an active part outside of going to Mass!

 

What does that mean?

It means that 66% of Catholics are doing no more … than attending Mass!

 

Could it be that that many people don’t have gifts that could be used by Church?

Or, could it be that people have buried their gifts & choosing not to use them?

 

How many of you have gifts that that you could use as:

Youth minister

Usher

Knights of Columbus

VBS helper

Greeter

Ladies Auxiliary / Guild

Retreat helper

Lector

Finance Council

PSR teachers

Cantor

School Board member

Catholic Social Svs.

Choir member

PTO member

Kairos Prison Ministry

Extraordinary Minister

RCIA Team member

Meals on Wheels

Altar Server

Vocations

Pro-life volunteer

Sacristan

Cursillo

Bible study leader

Eucharistic Adorer

Scout Leader

Bereavement Team

Visits to sick/homebound

 

 

All of these are listed in the Bulletin ... all of them can benefit from your talents!

 

All of you have been given gifts and talents,

They were not given to you for you to bury them or to use them just for yourself.

They were given to you to use, in your family. in your Church in your Community.

 

There will be an accounting!

 

And realize that if you haven’t used your gifts to build up the Kingdom of God, Jesus will ask you the same question He asked of the servant who buried his talent,

“ Should you not have invested (them)

so that I could have gotten a return on my investment?”

 

God is the Master … and He’s looking for a return on his investment in us.

He’s given us gifts and He wants us to use them ... for Him.

 

Take time to recognize the many gifts that God has given to you ...

and pray to determine how to best use your gifts.

 

In this way ... you’ll be so pleasing to God,

 

For our goal is to hear Him say, “Well done “my” good and faithful servant”...

 

and be worthy to receive ... His lavish compensation!

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