The Parable of the Talents” can be better appreciated by defining “talents” to aid us in our reflections.

We can equate talent to charism, a “favor” or “gratuitous gift,” according to its Greek origin. In the Christian sense, it is a specific gift of the Holy Spirit to a person to help others and the community or Church as a whole.

For organizations (orders or congregations), Vatican II says the grace of the founder is the grace of the congregation.

The Gospel points out that these talents are very personal, as the Master gives them “to each according to his ability.” These talents can be considered part of the mission God gives each person. They define the identity and the mission of a person.

Sing from the soul

As Rev. Elizabeth Braddon put it in her wonderful homily, “Living the Life Within You,” referring to the story of how the great Ella Fitzgerald started her singing career, “Clearly the gift that was yearning to come out was in her voice, and she sang from her soul for the rest of her life.”

To sing from our soul for the rest of our life is the invitation I ask you to reflect on today, Nov. 19, individually and as a family or community. How can we help each other do this?

Braddon poses a fundamental point: “What is it that makes our soul sing?”

In a well-researched booked, “Talented Teenagers, The Roots of Success and Failure,” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Kevin Rathunde and Samuel Whalen clearly show how talent that could have made persons great in the fields of science and the arts, as well as sports, are lost during the adolescent and young adult years.

Their findings support the famous African proverb, “It takes a tribe to raise a child.” Contrary to the myth that genuine talent will come out no matter what, “without dedicated parents (not stage parents— comment mine), savvy coaches or mentors, good schools, and challenging opportunities to express their gifts,” talent development will not happen.

How have we acted as a “tribe,” as a society, as a community, as a family to encourage each other—especially the young—to develop one another’s talents, to discover what it is that makes our soul sing?

Looking for connections

Four weeks ago, a seminar participant shared what one of the guest speakers in a conference she attended said: The youth of today, the millennials, are looking for connections with and guidance from adults.

It struck a chord in me because 24 years earlier, the 1993 McCann-Erickson youth study in the Philippines said as much. As the esteemed and pioneering psychologist Honey Carandang pointed out, a finding in the study that was not given much attention then was that the youth were longing for affective relationships with adults.

Are we doing enough for our youth, or are we failing them? What do we make of the past almost 25 years, where not much seems to have been done to provide for what is a basic longing of our youth, a longing that needs to be fulfilled if we are to help in their full human development?

Stewardship

The parable gives more points to ponder. The talents given were returned together with the fruits that the proper use of the talents bore. This reminds us of our stewardship role in everything God gives us.

Moreover, the returning of the talents and their fruits reminds us that we must not have a sense of entitlement. Seems like an appropriate reminder, given that we live in a time of abundance side by side with widespread poverty and want.

In 2013, an Asian Development Bank article pointed out how so much wealth was created in Asia in the first decade of the new millennium.

But at the same time, the gap had worsened between the few who have access to income and the majority who do not—worse than Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.

This still seems to be the case a decade after. The one exception to the trend, as the article stated, was that Vietnam invested in the education of their youth, and supported the agricultural sector.

Poverty is a problem, but the widening gap is the greater sin and scandal.

The reward in the parable interestingly enough says, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities.”

The reward was not more material things, but great responsibilities.

Do these responsibilities mean building a better world? Being more responsible for one another, our neighbor, especially the marginalized poor and the youth? Addressing this gap that needs to be arrested from widening and reversed?

What is it that makes our soul sing? Our talents, our charisms are part of it, but the identity and mission they define in us are what lie deep in our soul. We cannot dissociate the song of our soul from the world we need to build—caring, compassionate, just and loving. —CONTRIBUTED