33rd Week, Wednesday, Nov 16
Apocalypse 4:1-11 / Luke 19:11-28
I found myself in heaven Everyone was praising God.
A father was walking down an airport ramp to board a plane. In front of him, his little girl skipped along. Her face beamed from ear to ear. "Where are you going?" her father asked. Without missing a skip, she sang out, "To Grandma's, to Grandma's, to Grandma's." Gerhard Frost, who tells the story, notes that the little girl didn't say "to Bismarck" or "to Billings," but "to Grandma's." She wasn't going to a place, but to a person. Her answer recalls Jesus' words to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection: "Go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God." John 20:17
***
How do we envision heaven in our mind? Heaven is not going to a place; it is going to a person: the eternal God of heaven and earth.
***
Borrowing images from Ezekiel 1 and 10, the author of Revelation gives us an inaugural vision in which he describes a liturgy of heaven, showing the power of God, who will win the fight between good and evil.
Faith, the gospel, and the life of Christ are rich gifts that we have received to work with, to produce with, to do business with, as the gospel says. We cannot just take our faith for granted. We are stewards of the goods of the kingdom; a good steward does not only keep what the master gives him or her, but invests it to produce more. One who has will be given more. This is Luke’s presentation of the parable of the talents. How productive is our faith?
***
Wasted Talents
“Which is the richest place on earth?” asked the Guru. The disciples named various cities on earth. The Guru dismissed all their answers and said, “The richest place on earth is the burial ground. There lie buried many rich talents and possibilities never realized.” How true! God sends every child with wonderful potentials; but how many of them are realized! They remain unrealized due to many reasons, not all of them are the fault of the individual, though. We fail to give our children faith in God-given talents; we label them inadequate on the basis of birth, class, gender, race, colour, etc. Sometimes we force our unfulfilled dreams into them, ejecting out their own. I guess at the end of the day, we will be held responsible not only for not realizing the talents given to us, but also for not helping those around us to become who they were meant to be.
***
Prayer
Good and loving Father, you have made us rich in many ways, our faith, the good news of the gospel, your Son Jesus Christ above all, with his life and his Spirit, and the people around us. Help us grow in this faith and this love, teach us to invest ourselves in your kingdom of goodness and hope, that we may be worthy of your trust, by the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Feast day November 16
For Saint Margaret—a wife, a mother, and a queen—giving money was never enough. She was with those who were poor, making sure they had food and clothes. Margaret was born about 1045. She was raised in the Hungarian court, for she was from the line of nobility. When she was 12, she was sent to the English court of Edward the Confessor and further educated. When the Normans conquered England, Margaret, her mother, her brother, and her sister tried to return to Hungary. Their ship was blown off course and landed in Scotland. They were welcomed by King Malcolm III, who fell in love with the beautiful and gentle Margaret. They were married in 1070.
Scotland was a rough country, and although Malcolm was a good man, he was more of a soldier than a scholar or courtly gentleman. But Margaret helped him become a virtuous, gracious leader. They had eight children; all of them grew to love those who were poor and to care for them as their parents had. The youngest, David, was thought of as a saint by the people.
Margaret was prayerful. She gathered women together to study the Scriptures and to embroider vestments and altar cloths. She was always surrounded by beggars, and she gave them money and clothes. She helped ransom the English who had been captured, and she set up homes and hospitals for those in need. She and her husband would go to church during Lent and Advent. On the way home, they would wash the feet of poor people in need and give them money. At home, Margaret fed nine orphans who were brought to her daily. She brought a love of the arts and education to the people, and they loved her in return. Her children are believed to be primarily responsible for two centuries of progress and peace in Scotland.
Margaret died four days after her husband’s death in 1093. In 1250, she was canonized and later declared patroness of Scotland.
