Hidden Talents…

So last weekend I found myself in Mass again. Yes, I know, it’s curious…to me also…how often I seem to attend Mass, for someone who doesn’t consider herself religious. But there it is. I listen to that voice inside…the voice of the Heart… and, when it says “Go to Mass today” I go…and usually I hear something that speaks directly to that Heart.

Last Saturday night I had a special reason for attending Mass. It was one celebrated in memory of the father of our local Bishop, whose Masses I like to attend if I can, because he’s a man who speaks from the Heart and usually in an inspiring and challenging way. I only discovered by chance that the Mass was being celebrated, when I spoke to a friend about something unrelated the day before…and she mentioned it in passing. And my first reaction was “Damn! I can’t attend, because I’m going to another event at the same time: a talk on the Legend of Gilgamesh, which interests me, and which I’m keen to find out more about.“

But I do have moments of reasonable pragmatism and I decided (ratherly cleverly I thought) that I’d ‘kill two birds with one stone‘: attend the Mass until the point where the Bishop had delivered his Homily, and then rush over to the nearby cafe/bar, where the talk was taking place. You see, staying to receive the Eucharist often doesn’t feel that important to me, whereas listening to the readings and the Homily always does. And when I got to the cathedral and saw that it was packed with people, I chose a seat close to the exit, so that I could leave easily and unobtrusively when the moment came. But…the best laid plans…as I listened to the Homily, my intention changed….

The Bishop spoke about his father, as you’d expect, and he shared a little of what it was like to grow up with him. He said “I think we probably all have favourite verses or parts of the Bible, ones that seem to speak to us and that we find ourselves drawn to and going back to. My father’s favourite passage, which he referred to often, was ‘The Parable of the Talents‘.” And he went on to tell us how important his father considered it to be in life, to do the best that we can with the talents that each of us has been given.

He talked about protecting those talents but also about using them, and how much the act of just doing that can positively affect our lives. “Because they were never given to us just to be kept to ourselves” he said. He told us that he believes it’s in the sharing of our talents, that we really give thanks to God for the fact that we received them in the first place. He spoke about the way his father always made the best of the actual life situations in which he found himself; how he always tried to use his own talents to face and deal with each situation in a proactive way; and how he actively lived the things that he believed in. This clearly left a lasting impression on the Bishop who now appears to be doing the same.

He went on to encourage us to find the courage to see and to use our own unique gifts and talents, as a way of bringing more light into the world and into the lives of those around us. “We must be prepared to take risks” he said “to reach out to others. To be sensitive to the ways in which we might be able to help them find their own way out of darkness, which is often felt as a frustration, or an anger, or a despair. We must listen to what our heart moves us to do. We mustn’t bury the talents that we have, we must use them. And not only because that helps others, but also because it helps us too.”

I didn’t go to the Gilgamesh talk. I stayed for the whole Mass and, when the time came for the Eucharist, I felt a genuine sense of communion with everyone present in the Cathedral, who’d agreed with what the Bishop had said.

When I reflected on it later, I realised that the Gilgamesh talk would have been interesting, and would probably have engaged and educated my mind. But that what I seek over and over again, and what I feel urged to choose, are words and acts that speak directly to my heart, and that encourage it to have courage and faith in myself, and in the overall goodness and potential of a unified community of mankind. And I try to share the inspiring things that I see and hear, because I’ve learned that when I keep anything ‘just for myself’ I gradually become smaller and more diminished as human being and my individual world become smaller and more diminished too. But I also see that when I reach out…when any one of us reaches out…to share and contribute something to a ‘greater good‘, we begin to grow, both as individuals and also together…and we begin to draw closer to each other.

~~~~~

Yesterday I met up with someone who I know, but who I haven’t spent time with in more than a year. We shared a coffee and we talked and she mentioned something interesting. Some time ago she’d had the opportunity to meet one-to-one with the Bishop, to talk about her future. “He didn’t talk to me about duty, as you might expect, he talked to me about the things that interest me and he encouraged me to pursue those” she said. “I think he’s someone who genuinely believes in living ‘the plenitude of life’, that it’s possible for all of us to live full and rewarding lives, and that it’s what God wants for us too. “

I feel the same, and I believe we each find our way of doing it, by first recognising what our hidden talents are (and we all have them, there are no exceptions…they just vary in terms of what society values or doesn’t) and then by having the courage to develop them and to gradually use them.

Because, to God, all talent is both valued and needed and it’s only when we begin to actively use our own, that we discover they are the key, that unlocks the gate, that leads to that path of plenitude within this short and precious life.