Editorial

Parable reminds us to use our talents to help the poor

We are less than a week from Thanksgiving, with the Advent and Christmas seasons to soon follow.

What we have learned during the past eight months is that these last few weeks of 2020 will no doubt be unlike any other.

As the number of cases of COVID-19 continue to increase in record numbers across the United States—including here in Indiana—many of us are of the opinion that these last six weeks of the calendar year cannot go fast enough to get us to 2021.

But as people of faith, we know God is with us in these challenging times, always walking by our side, and carrying us when necessary.

Although these are times of uncertainty, our Creator still expects much of us. Pope Francis said as much while marking the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 15 at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

During the liturgy, the pope urged Christians to spend their lives in prayers, charity and witness to the Gospel on behalf of those in need.

With its theme of “Stretch forth your hand to the poor,” the fourth annual World Day of the Poor offered us a chance to reflect on the talents God has given to each of us, the Holy Father said.

While reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading about the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-30), the pope said, “We possess a great wealth that depends not on what we possess but on what we are: the life we have received, the good within us, the indelible beauty God has given us by making us in his image.”

Instead of focusing on the things we lack, we must not forget the gifts God has given to each of us, he continued.

Using the phrase “if only” “prevents you from seeing the good all around us,” Pope Francis said. “They make us forget the talents we possess. You may not have that, but you do have this, and the ‘if only’ makes us forget this. Yet God gave those talents to us because he knows each of us and he knows our abilities. He trusts us, despite our weaknesses.”

Like the servants in the parable, our faith calls us to use our gifts in service to others, he noted.

“It makes our talents bear fruit and it gives meaning to our lives. Those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life. We must repeat this, and repeat it often: those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life,” Pope Francis said.

Good servants, he continued, take risks, are not fearful and overcautious, do not cling to what they possess, and put their talents to good use.

“For if goodness is not invested, it is lost, and the grandeur of our lives is not measured by how much we save but by the fruit we bear,” the Holy Father said. “How many people spend their lives simply accumulating possessions, concerned only about the good life and not the good they can do? Yet how empty is a life centered on our needs and blind to the needs of others! The reason we have gifts is so that we can be gifts for others.”

The pope continued: “We should ask ourselves the questions: ‘Do I only follow my own needs, or am I able to look to the needs of others, to whoever is in need? Are my hands open, or are they closed?’ ”

Our faith teaches us to never forget the poor, and we are reminded we must be the hands and feet of Christ to them as well. We are to see Jesus in them, and be Jesus to them.

A life is empty when it is only focused on one’s own needs and is “blind to the needs of others,” the pope said.

The poor “help us become rich in love,” he added. “For the worst kind of poverty needing to be combatted is our poverty of love.”

During his Angelus address after the liturgy, the pope reminded those gathered, “There is so much hunger, even in the heart of our cities. … Often we enter into a mindset of indifference: the poor person is there, but we look the other way.” Instead, he continued, “stretch forth your hand to the poor: he is Christ.”

The pope also pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary as an example for all of us. She “received a great gift, Jesus himself, but she did not keep him to herself. She gave him to the world,” he said.

“May we learn from her to stretch forth our hands to the poor,” the pope said.

As we journey through the remainder of 2020 and beyond, may we never be afraid to do so as well.

—Mike Krokos