Daily Thought: There are perhaps many ways to interpret todays Gospel, however one way that I have often used is to ask the questions, "What is your image of God? And are you afraid of God?" In the story the man gives his servants gold coins and says go out and trade with them. Some of the servants go and trade and make more coins. One servant hides the coin away away in a handkerchief so he has it ready when the master wants it back. The servants who traded are rewarded and servant who stored the coin in the handkerchief has even the coin taken away. The servants who trade took a risk, they could have lost. The third servant took no risk, why? As the story tells us because he was afraid of the master!
We are given with many gifts from God and all we are asked to do is use them as we live out our life. However how we see God makes all the difference in how we use the gifts. If we are afraid of God, afraid of making a mistake then we probably will not take any risks with God's gifts. We will hang on to them, hide them away. If we see God as a friend, a companion, someone who takes risks, who wants us to take risks. Just look at Jesus' life, he took one risk after another, he invested his life everyday. So you see it comes down to how we envision, understand and live out our relationship with God. Another question I often ask is, "What if the first two servants had traded with the coins and lost them?" I cannot answer the question for sure but mMy guess is the master says the exact same thing, "Well done, good servant!" Why because no investment is ever lost it is always out there working in some way. Thus perhaps a challenge for today is to ask ourselves the question, "Are we willing to take a risk and bring God to the world today or are we going to hide God safely away?"
Daily Prayer: O God, Giver of all good gifts, grace us with trust in you so that we will let the gifts of your Spirit flow throughout our entire life. Help us to take a risk and share your gifts with the world. Cast out our fear with a love that enables us to take a chance letting your gifts increase and multiply making us and the world so much richer! Amen!
Runner's Thought: The meditative runner is fortunate enough to have found a way that refreshes the body and renews the spirit, thus enabling the runner to be born again with every runner.
Happy Feast of the Presentation of Mary! Have a great Wednesday and if you don't check in tomorrow have a great and safe Thanksgiving where ever you are! Please pray for peace in the Middle East especially Israel! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment