Graces of the Parable of the Talents
Sooner or later, each of us has to be confronted with the terrifying truth (or blissful truth, according to our faith) that we have nothing, nothing whatever, to go on or to rely on except Jesus. In all other areas of life our own efforts and activity are crucial and we have to be thoroughly adult; but where the very heart of reality is concerned, where we stand vis-à-vis God, there we are only children. No other state is appropriate or possible. Our fears, complexities, scruples, complacency and conceit come from not fixing our eyes on him who is our way, our truth, and our life. By nature, we tend to be fascinated by our own selves, even in our miseries. We dare not let go of this intense self-interest, feeling that if we do we will just dwindle into othingness. We dread the void, dread the feeling of being spiritually inadequate. So we look around, in the name of prayer, for ways of diverting ourselves from simple, trusting exposure to Love. “O foolish and slow of heart to believe” (Lk 24: 25) that God is who God is! “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow” (Mt 25: 25). Jesus knew the human heart and its pitiful caricature of God. No wonder we cannot trust that one! No wonder we shirk encounter!
Sister Ruth Burrows, O.C.D.
Sister Ruth Burrows is a Carmelite nun at Quidenham in Norfolk, England. She is the author of a number of best-selling books.
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