MY TALENTED CO-WORKER

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Early this morning I was in church meditating on the gospel for today's mass, the story of the three servants whose master gave each of them a certain number of "talents" to take care of while he was away. (In Greek, "talenton" refers to a certain large sum of money, but, because of this parable, it has come, in modern languages, to refer to various gifts or "talents" that we're born with.)  

As I usually do when I know the biblical story by heart and it seems to be getting stale, I looked up the text in the original Greek, where I invariably unearth some hidden treasure to reflect on. I wasn't disappointed this time.

The servant with the five talents took them and "invested" them. The Greek verb here is based on the Greek root "erg," which refers to the notion of "work." You may remember that physical scientists use "erg" to mean a unit of work. The servant, Jesus is telling us, put his five talents to work! So there was a challenging insight: Whatever gifts the Lord has given me, whether "talents" or powerful experiences or special people in my life, the Lord intends me to "put them to work," the way the servant in the parable did. I immediately thought of some recent experiences I've had and a couple of special friends, in terms of "How might the Lord want me to use these for the benefit of other people?" In ten days I'll be back in my role as sophomore Religion teacher, where I can certainly put to use most of the graces I've been enjoying recently. And then there are the five junior monks that I'm in charge of; they ought to be able to profit from whatever gifts I've been given.

Timothy, God's co-worker

But something still seemed to be missing when I looked at my "talents" this way. Then, true story, as I thought about that verb "to put to work," I remembered another word based on the root "erg" that had caught my attention earlier in the week, and which I'd noted in my prayer journal. I opened my journal to this past Thursday and found this verse from I Thessalonians, 3:2: "and so we sent Timothy our brother and co-worker with God." There was that root again, -erg, only this time it had a prefix, "syn," meaning "with." Timothy was a synergon,  a  "co-worker" with God in the preaching of the gospel. Timothy was putting his talents to work, like the servant in the parable, but he wasn't working alone: God was working alongside of him! 

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

I was really encouraged by that image: God has given me all of these gifts (another word for "graces"), including my talents, my friends, and my experiences, and is inviting me to put them to work; but the Lord promises to work right beside me. So, at times when I'm getting weary, I can glance around me and see Jesus hard at work beside me making sure that my efforts are fruitful and my talents are profitable.

This certainly bodes well for Judgement Day, when the Master will ask for an accounting of what I've done with my five talents.