Talent

We know this lawyer as Saint Alphonse of Liguori, and he is a Doctor of the Church.

Saint Alphonse of Liguori

Each person in the world has a gift.  Some of us are great writers, some are great teachers.  Other people are very good at computing things.  Others have analytical minds.  Some people are good with money and others with art.  Some people are great listeners and others are good with children.  One thing is for sure, and that is that every single human being on the planet has a talent.

And what is equally sure is that each human is expected to use their talents to give glory to God.  If I am good at teaching, then I should teach.  If I am good at leading, then I should lead and so on and so forth.  I know this because Christ told me this – in His own words…  “And he began to speak to them in parables. ‘A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard...  And he sent another, and him they killed; and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed.’” (Mark 12:1-12).

All I am asked to do is to keep control of myself and my greed.  I am asked to employ the abilities that I have for good and to make room for God to be at the centre of everything that I do.

In the early eighteenth century, a very intelligent lawyer was defending a client in the Court of Naples.  He was such an intelligent man that he had two PhDs, was fluent in several languages, was a talented artist, musician and politics.  He had a very successful career in law.  His career was so successful in fact that he had never ever lost a case – until this one…  The first case that this man lost was a case where he was defending Doctor Orsini.  Here he made a brilliant argument to win the case; however, the prosecution produced a document that exposed the client’s guilt and in one fell swoop, the brilliant lawyer lost the case.  He was humiliated as his own client had lied to him and fooled him.  After a long discernment – lasting over three years – this lawyer became a priest (when he turned thirty).  He eventually founded the Redemptorists, otherwise known as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.  He devoted himself to teaching and writing – writing over one hundred books.  We know this lawyer as Saint Alphonse of Liguori, and he is a Doctor of the Church.

And I have been thinking about this today as I have been reflecting on talents.  For it seems to me that there are so many talents that I am not using for GOOD and how much is wasted on me by God – how terribly much!

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.