Spend Your Gifts

"I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Lk 19:27

As we near the end of another liturgical year, the church offers us scriptural texts that help us reflect on the the year that is fast slipping away.  How have we used the gifts we received?  Have we spent them on behalf of the kingdom?  Are we richer for having given them away?

Luke's story of the nobleman who gives his servants 10 gold coins and challenges them to multiply his wealth while he is away, reminds us of Matthew's story of the talents but it is very different. Ten gold coins is a very modest gift.  Unlike a talent which would have been worth about $25,000, ten gold coins would have been the equivalent of about $200, and it should not have caused the servants overwhelming fear nor been difficult to invest in such way as to provide the nobleman with a healthy profit when he returned.

In other words, Jesus is suggesting that the gospel is easy to grow if we give it away generously. While some might fear that if we "spend" the gospel completely we will having nothing, everything about Jesus' life and death suggests that the more we give away the little we have, the more we will have for ourselves and everyone else who needs or wants it.  The multiplication of the loaves and fish is only one example of this. Fear should have no place in the life of Christ's disciples, but it often does.

For those of us raised during the Second World War and as children of parents who experienced the Great Depression, fear was a constant companion. Supplies of meat,  butter, sugar and gasoline were very limited and were used sparingly for fear there would be nothing for tomorrow.  Sometimes forgetting this, the children of friends often tease their parents for shopping at BJ's or Sam's Club and buying 50 rolls of paper towels when they only use one roll a week.  When these young people snicker at their parent's habits, they fail to acknowledge the fear their parents often carry, even after fifty years of relative prosperity.  Fear leads to hoarding and lack of trust in a system that failed to protect the poor.  Fear leads to shopping for bargains all the time even if the store with the best prices is 25 miles away and the cost of travel wipes out any saving they might realize from the bargain.

And it was fear that got in the way of the leaders of the Jewish people trusting Jesus and following him. Jesus' views and stance were too radical.  When Jesus suggested that he did not need a place to lay his head or a bank to protect his wealth, they thought he was insane, and their fear of his growing power got in the way of their hearing the gospel.  Unless we learn to trust God in all things, knowing that we are worth more than many sparrows, (Mt 10:31) our fear will allow us to cling to our possessions and justify our greed.  The good news of Jesus Christ is to be given away, and sharing the good news is the only way it can spread to all the nations.

Today ask yourself how you can give the gospel away, how you can be a disciple?