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Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

Be a good and faithful servant!

Homily originally presented November 15, 2020

by Monsignor Deering

 

Be a good and faithful servant!

 

Back when you were in Gradeschool, did you ever get any “E”s on your Report Card? Maybe not ... unless you attended Public School up in the northern states.

 

In the Chicago Public School System, in the 1960’s,

 

“E” was the mark used for Excellent Achievement ...

a mark given to students, who who through effective use of their abilities ...

produced ... an exceedingly high quality of work.

 

The other Marks used for School Grading back then were:

“G” ... a mark given to students who produced good quality of work.

“F” ... a mark given to students who produced fair or acceptable work.

“U” ... a mark given to students who though ineffective use of their abilities

   failed to produce an acceptable quality of work.

 

These Letter Grades were also shown on each Report Card to show

 the Effort that each student put forth to learn the material in each subject.

 

Again ... E indicated Excellent Effort ... G indicated Good Effort ...

    F indicated Fair Effort and U indicated Unsatisfactory Effort.

 

So Students actually got two grades for each subject ... one for

what they accomplished and the other for the effort they put forth to learn.

 

So the Report Card that Mom and Dad wanted to see was one with all E’s.

 

Sadly, my older brother’s Report Card rarely had any E’s ...

but instead had a bunch of F’s (for Fair) and U’s (for Unsatisfactory) Work.

along with a bunch of F’s and U’s for Effort (put forth to learn the work)!

 

 I can still hear my Dad reprimanding him after every Report Card to not be lazy ... and to try his best to learn the material in every class.

 

And Dad would promise him:

I wouldn’t care what grade you got as long as you got an E for Effort!

 

Dad understood that not everyone has the talent to get “E”s in every subject ... but everyone can try to make the best use of whatever talents they’ve been given.

 

The coaching that Dad gave to my brother actually comes from ... God!

 

It’s the very coaching that Jesus gave us today in His parable about the talents.

 

 

God, our Father, knows well, the work that He wants each of us to do ...

 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 beyond getting any more grades for their accomplishments and their efforts.

 

But they’re wrong ... because the Teacher of all teachers is watching ...

and grading us on how we perform in “the classroom of life”.

 

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

He expects all people to participate in the ongoing work of redemption ...

by using their talents and abilities  ...

to build up the Body of Believers during their 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 play a part 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 achieving 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 ...

of using the talents He gave you for His Glory and for the service of others!

 

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 as my” 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.”

 

Ouch!    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 just so you could use it to make a fortune gambling at the Blackjack table.

 

If God has given you good health ...

It wasn’t just so you could go vacationing all 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 activities 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!

 

 

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 Teacher say?     Am I doingmy Homework” ...

using 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 … each of us will be graded by The Teacher!

 

In our Second Reading today, St. Paul warns us of this 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.”

 

Yes the Teacher is sure to come and award us a Grade; 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’ve all been given different types and amounts of talents.

 

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 make the best use of what we’ve been given.

 

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 well.

 

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

 

If you were a teacher, you’d want your students to use their talents ...

to produce the best work they could .

 

And if they didn’t ... you’d have to release them from the class.

 

It’s the same way with God.

He wants us to use the gifts He’s given us to build up 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 job,

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 Mass ... are active in Church outside of going to Mass!

 

What does that mean?

It means that 66% of Catholics are doing no morethan 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 Team

Pro-life volunteer

Sacristan

Cursillo

Bible study leader

Eucharistic Adorer

Scout Leader

Bereavement Team

Visits to sick/homebound

 

 

After our separation from Covid-19 ... which of them would you like to try?

... 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 Report Card!

 

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 Teacher and He’s looking for a return on his investment in us.

He’s given us talents 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.

 

Realize that the goal of life  ... isn’t just to live a long life ...

the goal is to live your life ...however long it is ...

fully using your talents ... to glorify God ...

and to build up the Kingdom of God on Earth.

 

The Church emphasized this in a powerful way last month by beatifying ...

15 yr. old, Carlo Acutis, an Italian schoolboy who helped spread Roman Catholic teaching ... online ... before he died of leukemia in 2006!

 

Carlo became deeply religious during his middle-class childhood in Milan, Italy  ...

and would donate his pocket money to the city’s poor residents.

 

And, he used his prodigious coding talent to set up websites for priests.

At the age of 10, he began to create an online exhibit about religious miracles,

which has gained huge popularity since his death.

 

Hundreds of parishes around the world have printed off material from the site

to create real-life exhibits of their own.

 

Last year, Pope Francis paid tribute to the teenager, declaring that

his use of the internet to “communicate values and beauty

was the perfect antidote to the dangers of social media.

 

In a document he wrote after a synod on youth, Francis quoted a phrase coined by Carlo warning other youngsters not to lose their individuality on the internet: “Everyone is born an original, but many die like photocopies.”

 

After citing the phrase, Pope Francis added, “Don’t let this happen.”

 

 

 

As Carlo’s fame spread, Catholics started to pray to him for his intercession.

And in February, the pope attributed a miracle to the teen,

triggering his beatification, last month on October 10th!

 

If a second miracle can be attributed to his intercession,

teenager Carlo Acutis will be declared a Saint ...

and possibly revered as ... “Patron Saint of the Internet!”

 

How did he use his talents during his short life?

For the Glory of God ... and in service to others!

 

And we can too!    This is the way to make the Grade in the Classroom of Life.

 

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

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

 

You know, most School Grading Systems today us the Letters:

A, B, C, D, and F.

 

They skip E!  the Grade of “Eis missing from today’s Grading System!

A, B, C, D, and F.

 

But that’s actually The Very Grade that we need to achieve when

 the Ultimate Teacher, God, evaluates how we used our God-Given Talents.

 

  Because “E” will not only signifyExcellent” Achievement ...

but “E” will also signify our next Class location ... “Everlasting” Life!

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