Called & Gifted: the Deeper Meaning of Talent

by Sherry Weddell, Associate Director

As I read the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter on stewardship recently, reflecting upon the true meaning of "talent," a story that Scott Moyer told me came to mind. Scott facilitates the discernment of charisms in a young-adult group at St. Dominic’s, the Dominican parish in San Francisco. A young man in this group told how discerning a charism of pastoring had changed his life. Scott recalled him saying, "I used to think there was this part of myself that was just never going to get to live because I wasn’t called to be a priest, but now I know that pastoring is a charism of the Holy Spirit and a call that I can live out as a layman."

What persuaded this young man that his desire to nurture the spiritual growth of a group of Christians was illegitimate? It was confusion between the canonical office of pastor, which requires ordination, and the charism of pastoring, which is given by the Holy Spirit to lay and ordained alike. No matter how gifted and hard-working, a priest cannot possibly provide single-handedly the pastoral care required by the 2,500 parishioners attending the average American parish. But our Lord gives the wonderful charism of pastoring to provide significantly for this demand.

In Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response, the U.S. bishops make it very clear that stewardship involves much more than how Catholics deal with money. To be a faithful steward is to adopt the fundamental stance of one who follows Jesus in all of life. When we exercise stewardship, we place our whole selves at the service of Jesus, including our charisms, our talents, and our work. Stewardship begins with how one receives and lives what God has given. "Who is a Christian steward?" the bishops ask. "One who receives God’s gifts gratefully, cherishes and tends them in a responsible and accountable manner, shares them in justice and love with others, and returns them with increase to the Lord."

The charisms of the Holy Spirit are given so that God’s love and provision can reach the world through us. The fruits of our charisms are never our own. They are wholly intended for healing, encouraging, strengthening, and providing for our neighbor. We are practicing stewardship at the most profound level when we come to discern the spiritual gifts that God has given us and embrace the work of love through which they will bear the greatest fruit.

If pastors and parishioners remain unaware of their charisms, or if the gifts and call of each parishioner are never drawn forth, then much of God’s provision for our needs and the needs of our parishes will fail to reach us. Our young man in San Francisco is an example of how, through failing to grasp the significance of an emerging "talent," we can fail in the stewardship of God’s gifts. A conscious discernment of charisms and vocation is, for this reason, a major focus at the Catherine of Siena Institute.

The bishops’ pastoral letter makes clear that stewardship extends to one’s vocation: "People first of all are stewards of the personal vocations they receive from God." But a call to a particular vocation is always accompanied by the gifts of the Holy Spirit needed to carry out that call effectively. One’s charisms and vocation, therefore, go hand in hand. Moreover, "People do not hear the Lord’s call in isolation from one another. Vocations are communicated, discerned, accepted, and lived out in a community of faith which is a community of disciples" (John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, 21). For this reason, the Institute stresses parish-based discernment in our Called & Gifted Workshop, and we are busily creating a parish-centered program for the discernment of vocations.

I was struck by another point in the pastoral letter. The bishops state that "the practice of authentic Christian stewardship inevitably leads to evangelization" (emphasis added). Faithful stewards take seriously the mission of the Church and, therefore, the call to evangelization. Just a few weeks ago, I was listening to my missionary friend, Natalia (see "One woman’s mission from God," Siena Scribe, vol. I, no. 1, spring 1998), as she prepared to return once again to her home in the Middle East and to the ever-more-suspicious and oppressive Islamic government in power there. She told me, in a tone of awe, a remarkable story about what lay evangelization can look like. (Details in the following story have been altered to protect the identities of those involved.)

An American woman had spent decades in a militantly Muslim country where Christians who share their faith with a Muslim have been imprisoned, and where Muslims who embrace the Christian faith are liable to be killed. Despite the dangers, this devoted woman gradually became a secret conduit for Bibles and Christian literature into the country. Because of the possibility that a request for these supplies could be the laying of a trap by the secret police, she would never respond unless the same person approached her on three separate occasions. Imagine a person so spiritually hungry that he or she would risk disgrace, prison, or death not once, but three times, to obtain a book that you or I hear read at every Mass or can casually pick up in a bookstore!

How can an "ordinary" Christian housewife engage in such extraordinary work on behalf of the Gospel? God gives each of us the charisms and vocation to make our unique contribution. Many lay men and women have accomplished remarkable things because they dared to exercise their charisms and live their vocation—they were faithful stewards. In the bishops’ words, "We are obliged to be stewards of the Church—collaborators and cooperators in continuing the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, which is the Church’s essential mission. This mission—proclaiming and teaching, serving and sanctifying—is our task. It is the personal responsibility of each one of us as stewards of the Church."

Far more than giving a little of our time or treasure, Christian stewardship demands the wholehearted discernment of one’s charisms and one’s talents in the context of lifelong vocation. Only when we seek to answer Christ’s call with our whole being, will the love of the risen Christ be revealed through us.