Small Gifts Of Inestimable Worth

Ernest Gordon was a young man from Scotland who fought in the Pacific theatre during World War II. While traveling from Singapore, he and several other soldiers were captured by the Japanese and sent to the infamous Kwai Valley to join a force of prison laborers building a railway from Thailand to Burma.

The conditions the workers endured during those years were inhumane and cruel. With little food and lacking adequate clothing, they labored from dawn until late in the evening. Because the guards were afraid that they would not meet the deadline imposed on them by the Japanese government for completing the railway, they would beat the prisoners mercilessly to get them to work even harder. Torture was common including hanging prisoners from trees by their thumbs, crushing their heads in vices and burying them alive.

Over 16,000 prisoners died during the construction of the railway. At first, the hope of one day returning home motivated the prisoners to stay alive. Soon, that hope gave way to hatred of their captors and,  later, hope gave way to despair. As Ernest Gordon related it to a journalist, “One grey day succeeded another. Misery, despair and death were our constant companions.”

Eventually, under the harsh conditions, Gordon fell victim to several ailments including malaria and tropical ulcer and was sent to a “death ward” where prisoners would go to die. It was there that he met three men who would change his life. They were devout Christians who sacrificed themselves to care for him and eventually save his life.

Every day, they boiled rags and applied them to his wounds. One of them, sold a watch to buy medicine for him. Often, they would go without food themselves so that he could eat. Though Gordon had experienced nothing but cruelty and torture during his captivity, a light of hope was beginning to shine for him in what had been a living hell.

It became clear to him that what motivated these men to sacrifice themselves to save him was their Christian faith and convictions. Though Gordon had been an agnostic, he embraced Christianity because of their example and started to join them in prayer and good works.

Eventually, Gordon recovered from his illness and regained his strength. When the other prisoners saw that he had not died, the morale among them greatly improved and a new hope motivated them to endure the degrading conditions of the camp. The prisoners began doing good deeds for one another, joining together in prayer and helping one another with their work. As they shared the gospel with one another, they even found the grace to forgive their captors and witness to the guards.

Ernest Gordon survived those difficult years of captivity and was eventually rescued by allied troops. After the war, he became a Presbyterian minister and the chaplain at Princeton University. He tells the story of those years in the book, Through the Valley of the Kwai which was made into a movie in 2001 entitled, To End All Wars.

Ernest Gordon’s conversion experience is a beautiful and moving illustration of today’s gospel message.

The prisoners had very little to give. They were all struggling under the same harsh conditions. However, instead of keeping the little they did have to themselves, they sought to serve one another. Who knows how many lives were saved because of the sacrifices that the prisoners made on a daily basis to treat each other’s wounds and raise each other’s spirits. In particular, the prisoner who sold his watch to buy medicine for Gordon illustrates how much good comes from a small kindness. Who knows where that watch is today? But we are still inspired by the charity which moved him to sell it.

Hearing Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, we might think that we have too little to give. We might wonder what good we could possibly do in a world with so much need. We might even fear that if we give what we have there will not be enough left over for us.

However, it is often true that, those with the least to give make the biggest difference. Besides, the greatest acts of kindness are often those which do not require money or special talents. They are the smiles that we give to strangers to let them know that they are welcome. They are the pats on the back we give to our friends to let them know they have our support. They are stopping for a few minutes to listen to a neighbor who  is having a hard time. These small acts do not cost a dime yet they pay inestimable dividends.

We live in a world in which there is much neglect and cruelty. However, our world suffers perhaps not so much from the evil done but from the good that so many fail to do. Inspired by Jesus’ message and the witness of people like Ernest Gordon, let us go from this place intent on doing what good we can, no matter how small it may seem. As we receive the greatest small gift of all - the Body and Blood of Christ - let us ask God to put His love into our hearts so that we will be generous in giving of ourselves to others. Then despair will give way to hope and hate will give way to love. The light shining forth from our good deeds will light the way forward for others. And, when we appear before Jesus, the Just Judge, we will see how our good works were multiplied over and over again to the glory of God, the Father. 

A Master Who Is Generous

Does the parable in today’s gospel make you feel uneasy? Did it make you think about all you have been given and what use you have made of it? Did it make you wonder why some people have so much and others have so little?

If you did react in any of those ways, it is completely natural. That is why Jesus spoke in parables so frequently. He wanted to shake us out of our complacency. He wanted to challenge the way we look at ourselves, at the world and at God. He wanted to prod us into seeing reality the way that our Heavenly Father does so that we will change our lives accordingly. By their nature, parables are meant to leave us with more questions than answers.

The main point of today’s parable seems clear - we will be judged according to our use of the talents God has given us. But if we reflect closely on Jesus’ words there are some even deeper insights we can gain into the spiritual life and our relationship with God.

The first point is how generous God is.

In the parable, the king gives his servants five, two and one talents. In Jesus’ day, a talent was the largest denomination of money. It was reserved mostly for government transactions. Therefore, the king was not entrusting his servants with token amounts of money, but what would have been vast sums that could have potentially bankrupted him. The king himself was taking a risk in entrusting these talents to his servants.

In the same way that the king was generous in entrusting talents to his servants so our Heavenly Father is generous with His gifts to us. Before we ever can give an account of what we have done with His gifts, we first have to make an inventory of just how much He has given us. It all starts with the gift of life. None of us asked to be born. Our life and everything that goes along with it are a pure gift of God’s generous love.

We were then blessed to be born into a family of people who cared for us and nurtured us when we were at our most vulnerable. None of our families were perfect, but we would not be here if they did not care for us to the best of their abilities. It was in our families that we learned what true love was and how to nurture relationships with others. By having families of our own, many of us have passed that gift of life and love on to others, sharing in God’s creative love.

For most of us, the gift of faith would have been given to us through the witness of our families. They were the ones who had us baptized, who insisted that we attend Mass and live the values of the gospel until we were mature enough to see the truth and value of it for ourselves. That faith has been with us carrying us through the hard times and making our joy complete in good times.

Then we have our  individual abilities and gifts. We have skills, material wealth and prosperity, health, strength, vigor, charisma and other character traits that come naturally to us as part of our personality. Even physical beauty is a gift of God. All these traits can be put to use to build up God’s Kingdom. Along with life, family and faith they are entrusted to us so that we can do our Heavenly Father’s will.

When we consider all that God has given us, it will be natural for us to feel grateful. However, through the parable, Jesus wants us to take it one step further. He wants us to consider how we can put all those gifts to the service of God’s Kingdom. How can we make the world a better place, a place of welcome for the poor and vulnerable, a place of justice for the oppressed, a place of love for the rejected? He wants to challenge us to see our unique skills and abilities not as ways to build up our self-esteem but as means to build up His Church.

The second point of the parable is not only that God is generous but that His gifts to us are multiplied when we put them to use.

In the parable, the good servants were able to double their investments. Not only that, but the servant with the ten talents was given the talent of the lazy servant. In the same way, when we take the risk of sharing what we have with others, our total is not diminished but increased. In God’s calculus, the more we give, the more we have.

The best example of this is love. When I take the risk of loving another person I do not end up with less love to give away. Rather I experience the joy that comes with sharing my heart with another person and so I have the courage to take the risk again and again. As light grows stronger when it is passed from one candle to another, so the gift of love multiplies as we give it away.

The same is true of all God’s gifts, even material ones like food and money. Like the wicked servant in the parable, we may want to hold back out of fear. We may want to keep what we have buried so that we will not lose it. But in doing so we are only cheating ourselves of the other blessings God wants to shower on us.

God has blessed each one of us generously. Take some time this week to make an inventory of every blessing in your life. Ask God how He expects you to put them to use for His Kingdom. If we can respond generously and courageously to His will, we will find even more blessings flowing from His hand. Then, at our Master’s return, we can feel confident that we will enter into His joy.