LONE RANGER OR BROTHERS’ KEEPER

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS

“It will be as when a man who was going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one—to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Matthew 25: 14-15

There are at least two ways that we can look at these readings: as a bunch of “Lone Rangers” or as a community of brothers and sisters.

First Reading: Every one of us deserves a worthy spouse or friend, an “unfailing prize who brings good, and not evil, all the days of her life.”
Psalm: Every one of us needs the help and guidance of others so that we can ”walk in God’s ways.”
Second Reading: We are called to be children of light, but we can fall into darkness when we cut ourselves off from the source of that light – our Triune God in whose image we are each created.

Gospel: Looking at the Gospel from this point of view we see that the man did not summon his servants in private but met them together. Yet they worked in private, perhaps hiding from each other what they were doing. In my meditation on this story this year, I find myself with a deep sadness that the three servants had not developed a loving relationship with each other or helped each other with the task at hand so that all three of them could have succeeded. . . . And I think that what happened to Theodore McCarrick (See McCarrick Report.) might not have happened had the families and worlds in which he grew up been more of what they and we today should be – more communal, even as communal as the Persons of our Triune God in whose image we have been created.  There is too much individualism and not enough sharing with a true and trusted friend of what is going on inside of us.

Let’s place ourselves in the final scene of this week’s Gospel story. See yourself as each of the four people there, the owner, the three servants, each reporting what he had done and hearing what the others did and how the master is responding to each report. Relive that last scene. What are you thinking and feeling? What should you be thinking and feeling? What can each of us do to be more like the community of persons that is God’s sincerest wish for each and every one of us?

YOUNGBERG’S THREE ME’S

Fr. Vincent Youngberg, CP, in a retreat that he gave here a decade ago, said that we all seem to spend too much time concerned about two very different “versions” of ourselves.  One is the “me” I want other people to think that I am (probably better than the real me) and  the other the “me” I think that I am (probably worse than the real me).  And all the while, the only “me” that really is and the only “me” that matters is the “me” that God knows that I am (the true me)!

LIFE IN COMMUNITY

Back to the Vatican report. As I read it, I thought of how easy it is to fool oneself into thinking that one’s thoughts and actions “ring true” to who and what we think we and these actions are.  And that led me to a deeply felt sense of gratitude and need for more-than-occasional contact with those sisters in my community and others who know me well enough that, when they observe me going astray from what I say I want to be, tell me what they see.

Do you have such people in your life?  Because of your “image of God” nature, you need them.  Consider talking about this with some people you have grown to trust.

My closest friends talk to me often enough to sense when I am going off track and they tell me when they think I need to correct something.  This is an integral part of being Church in the purest sense of the word.  We need others whom we allow to heal us and who let us heal them.  That sacred interplay is the working of the Trinity-presence within us – and communicating between us.  These friends speak what they see, even if I don’t like hearing it.  Yes, it hurts, but I treasure their honesty and it forces me to get back on track.  Without being on track, my life (and yours) are useless.  Perhaps if more of us nurtured such relationships with the right people, ones worthy of our trust, the world, ourselves and our families would be more genuine and happier.

Let’s join together this weekend and pray for such communication with each other.

Sister Loretta