[ Today's Readings ]
Worthy are you, Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things;
because of your will they came to be and were created.
Everything and are we have we receive from God. Because of that we must use it all for him.
He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins
and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’
Every gift we are given is given for a purpose. Nothing can be buried, ignored, hidden, or forgotten.
Sir, here is your gold coin;
I kept it stored away in a handkerchief,
for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man;
These are the good works which God prepared in advance for us.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (see Ephesians 2:1).
The thing that should reassure us about this is that nothing is by accident. Even if the king seems to be far away in a distant country and it feels like we're on our own with these gifts he has a plan for them because he has a plan for us.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope (see Jeremiah 29:11).
What do we do while the king feels distant and we have gifts that we know we need to use? We stand on his word. If he tells us, "Engage in trade with these until I return" then we know what we must do. There is some freedom as to how to do it. But hiding the coins is obviously not according to the plan.
When the king feels distant we must remember that he is actually with us always even unto the end of the age. We experience the truth of his nearness more when we begin to stand on his word no matter the circumstance. This experience can transform our worship which seems all to earthly into something whereby we enter the door to heaven.
Day and night they do not stop exclaiming:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty,
who was, and who is, and who is to come.”
We are able to join this chorus when we learn to believe he invites us to do so. At the beginning of every mass Jesus says to us, "Come up here" and stands ready to reveal all of heaven to us. Let's trust his word and stand on it.
Praise the LORD in his sanctuary,
praise him in the firmament of his strength.
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