Gift and Task

When God bestows a gift, He always gives a certain task along with it. The gift and the task can never be separated. We find this principle throughout Scripture, even from the beginning. God gave Adam the gifts of sanctifying grace, immortality, and above all, intimacy with Him. He also gave him the task of cultivating and caring for the garden. Likewise, God bestowed upon ancient Israel the gift of His covenant, of being His chosen people entrusted with the Law, the prophets and true worship. And these gifts carried with them the task of bearing witness to His truth before all nations, to be holy as He is holy.

Our Lord summarizes this principle in simple and sobering terms: "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more" (Lk 12:48). The responsibility described here flows from the concept of stewardship. The talents and gifts we possess are not, in the end, our own. We are merely stewards who hold the master's goods — and not just for safekeeping, but for development and cultivation. When the master returns, He will, of course, expect to find His wealth safe and sound. But even more will He desire to see some increase of His wealth (cf. Mt 25:14-30; Lk 19:12-27). How shameful it would be to stand before Him holding His wasted and neglected gifts.

When we consider the gifts entrusted to us, we typically think first of natural goods: our time, wealth, talent, etc. And these are indeed gifts to be cultivated. To the extent we have been given them, we are expected to invest them for the glory of God. We know well, for example, just what a gift time is. In fact, we never seem to have enough of it. God entrusts us with time, however, not just for our enjoyment, nor only for getting a lot of work done and making more money. Ultimately, He entrusts us with time (and we never know how much that will be) for the cultivation of His life within us. Time affords us the opportunity to repent and to grow in grace. We ought to be, as St. Paul says, "redeeming the time" (Eph 5:16).

"Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more." We should hear these words not only as regards natural gifts, but also and even more so in reference to supernatural gifts. God's gifts of the faith, the sacraments and the Church far surpass any natural gifts we may enjoy. And they also bring with them a greater task.

He has entrusted the Church to us as our mother. So we should bear in our hearts the corresponding love for and fidelity to the Church, and desire to defend her from her foes. He has entrusted to us the Catholic faith as a bulwark against error and uncertainty, so that we can travel the road to salvation securely and confidently. As good stewards of this gift, we ought to deepen our knowledge of that faith, and make it known to others.

By baptism, He at once entrusts Himself to us and gives the task of cultivating a constant awareness of His presence within. In confession, He bestows the gift of forgiveness and the grace to overcome sin — and with it He confers the task of avoiding sin and seeking freedom from sinful inclinations. Most of all, in Holy Communion, He gives us His body, blood, soul and divinity — to nourish us and mold us evermore into His likeness. The proper response to this sublime gift is not to race out of Mass immediately, nor to return to the pew and daydream or watch others go to Communion. Rather, this is a gift to be cultivated — to be planted deep within us and nourished with prayer and devotion, that it may bear fruit worthy of the giver.

Every gift imparts a task. This principle works in reverse as well: every task is indeed a gift. The task of cooperating with God's grace is a privilege granted to no other creatures in the world. We alone have received the gift of participating in God's work of salvation. May we thank God for the gift of the task, and the task of the gift — and pray that His grace render us faithful stewards of what we have received.