Homily for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings remind us that each one of us has some gift or talent that has been given to us by God who has called us to use these gifts and talents to share with others so that we might be instruments of God’s love and compassion in our world.

The difficulty we often have is our inability to appreciate the gifts that each of us has to offer. Perhaps we think that we’re not good enough to actually be messengers of God’s glory. Perhaps we lack the self-esteem and self-confidence to believe that God would actually want to use us as instruments of peace and love in the world.

Several years ago, in my discernment about the priesthood, I kept procrastinating because I felt that I had to somehow be perfect or exceedingly holy to be a priest. But then I recognized that priests are people just like anyone else; that they, like me, are interested in things other than incense and vestments, that they have their faults and foibles. I recognized that priests didn’t have some special “connection” to God above and beyond the rest of the members of the Church. It was then that I was able to surrender myself to this tugging at my heart and say “yes” to God’s call.

Another difficulty is that we sometimes find it inconvenient to use our gifts. That using our gifts and talents is sometimes a painful thing to do is a very legitimate statement. But that is what sacrifice, more often than not, entails. When we make a choice to do something, we often make the choice not to do something else that we may very well have wanted to do.

Another personal story, again, several years ago, I was on my way to a store. On my way there I drove by a neighbor’s house whose father had recently died. My neighbor was sitting on the steps. My immediate feeling was that I should stop and talk to him, but I hesitated because I only had a short time to get to the store and get back. I kept driving by something inside me caused me to stop and go back to talk to him. When we started talking about his father he began to cry. We talked for about an hour. I never did get to the store, but I knew I had done the right thing by stopping. My neighbor needed to release his grief and sorrow and God put me in the right place to help him to do that. While I had no idea that stopping to talk would help my neighbor, farthest from my mind was the idea that I would benefit so much from his pouring forth of emotion. Indeed, sacrifice is often more life-giving than we can ever fully appreciate.

And so, we come back to the call of today’s readings, the call to recognize our gifts and talents, the call to share those gifts, the call to see that God can work through our imperfections and failings if we open our hearts to His grace.

In discerning our gifts and talents we must remember that not everyone has the same ones. Some of us are called to roles of leadership, some of us are called to roles of teaching, and some of us are called to roles that play themselves out quietly. But all of us are called to bestow God’s blessings on others by the use of our gifts, to see that our practice of faith means more than showing up for Mass on Sundays and Holy Days; that it means being an active part of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth. What we do the building should be reflected in all our actions so that the Gospel message of Christ might be heard and seen by all who know us.

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. People do not light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket. They set it on a stand where it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, your light must shine before all people so that they may see goodness in your acts and give praise to your heavenly Father.”+