Preparing for what comes next

 This is my homily for today, the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A.  The readings for this week are here.

A week ago last Tuesday, I served as an election judge for one of our local precincts in Arlington Heights.  We had some slow hours, so I had the opportunity to get to know my fellow judges.  Of the five judges assigned to this precinct, three of us were adults.  The other two were teens, juniors from New Trier High School in Wilmette.  They were nice kids.  One plays on the field hockey team.  The other does swimming and plays water polo.  So they both have some athletic talent, but neither thinks athletics will be enough to carry them through life.  They’re not entirely sure yet what they want to do after high school, beyond some rather vague plans to go to college.

The junior year of high school is an important year because it’s the year when high school students need to lift their eyes above the horizon of high school, and start thinking seriously about what comes afterward. It’s the year that college promotional materials start filling the mailboxes of their homes.   It’s the year they take the ACT or the SAT for real.  They’re being measured for what comes next, revealing to college admissions boards their talents and limitations which either will open doors of opportunity for them, or perhaps constrain their college options and choices.  

The junior year of high school: it’s a time that prompts these young men and women to start thinking about their futures more seriously and comprehensively than most of them have up until that point in their lives.  Looming over all this activity and these considerations is the big question: what do you want to do with the rest of your life?  

So it is for all of us, too.  We’ve reached the point in the liturgical year in which we’re prompted to contemplate what comes next for us.  This world we live in, these lives we’re living, will not last forever.  This all will end.  What comes next, and what is to be our part in it all?  What are our gifts, and our opportunities, and what are we to do with them to prepare for what comes next?

We tend to think that whatever aptitudes we have are a result of our own native abilities.  But in fact, if we have talents, they are gifts from God.  We haven’t earned our talents, and we don’t deserve them.  They are not ours.  We can think of our talents as assets, or wealth, which God has blessed us with.  And the meaning of today’s parable of the master who gave talents to his servants is clear: our talents are not to be used for our own desires and purposes, but rather for God’s purposes.  We like to think of ourselves as our own, independent masters.  But we Christians know better: we are not masters but servants, and the one whom we serve is God and his kingdom.

In short: we must put our talents to work, not for our own benefit, but to build God’s kingdom.  And today’s parable makes it clear that that is the basis on which we are to be judged on our own judgment day.  That will happen, either when our master comes to earth again, or when we die.  

Just pause and think about that for a moment, because it’s an important point: this judgment which we all will face, is sort of our own ACT or SAT test.  Except we’re not going to be judged on our intelligence, or our ability to prepare for standardized tests.  Instead, we are going to be judged on what we did with the gifts, the talents, with which God blessed us.  And if we have not put them to good use, if all we did was bury them in the ground while we pursued our own pleasures and ambitions, then – the judgment may not go well for us.

Like high school juniors, we’re called, today and every day, to do our best to understand what talents and gifts we’ve been given; and then, like high school juniors, we must figure out what to do with them.  High school juniors in our local community are groomed and prepared to go to college.  But we Christians should be preparing ourselves and one another to build up God’s kingdom.  The two questions we need to be asking ourselves are: (1) what are my talents; and (2) how can I use them to build up God’s kingdom?

Let me offer a couple of considerations about this.  The first is: building up God’s kingdom may be quite different than building up wealth here on earth.  Instead of using money as the measure of how well we’re doing, I’d like to suggest a different metric: good fruits.  I think it’s likely that the currency in God’s kingdom is not gold, but rather good fruits.  If we are making good use of our talents as God wishes us to, then we are bringing about good fruits.  If we rear children who are good people and who believe in God, then as parents we are bearing good fruits.  If we are helping to resolve the conflicts we have with others and spread peace, then we are bearing good fruits.  If we are bringing hope where there is despair, then we are bearing good fruits.  If we are being a friend to a lonely person, or loving someone who hasn’t been loved enough, then we are bearing good fruits.  Those activities may not make us wealthy in this earthly kingdom, but heaven measures wealth differently.

The second consideration is: you may be blessed with talents and gifts which can’t be monetized in this life, but for which you will be rewarded lavishly in the kingdom to come – if you put those talents to work as our master wishes.  For example: in the marketplace here on earth, there is basically no value at all to be good at praying.  But in God’s kingdom, being good at praying is a wonderful talent to possess.  If you are good at praying, then – run with that!  Likewise, here on earth, helping others in need usually is a low-paying job; but in God’s kingdom, it will earn us great reward.  

We’re all like high school juniors: trying to figure out what we’re good at, and what to do with the talents we’ve been given.  But we can’t wait too long to decide.  The master is coming back soon, and we must be ready.