Weekly HOMILY for November 13, 2011: Knowing and Using Our Gifts

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
November 13, 2011
Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air & St. Mark Parish, Fallston

Knowing and Using Our Gifts
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


THE GIFTEDNESS OF CHILDREN

There is a young adult named Brian who provides a good lesson for us. Brian has always loved to tinker with mechanical devices.

As a 6-year old, he took apart an alarm clock. At age 9, Brian helped his dad fix the lawn mower. In high school, he spent hours tearing apart and rebuilding computer equipment.

And now, as a young adult, Brian is a sound technician for a theatre company. His parents have steadily encouraged him from a very young age.

But, Brian was never labeled as “gifted.” The definition of the “gifted child” has traditionally been limited to the top 5 to 10% of children who achieve high test scores and who excel in school.

No question, these children are gifted, but, there may be hundreds of other ways for children to be gifted. Today, educators and psychologists tell us that nearly all children have special gifts.

Children may display their giftedness through body movement, music, athletics, technical skills, social interaction, intuitive insight, perseverance, creativity, a quick wit and on it goes.

Many professionals now say that all children are gifted and they just show it in different ways.


OUR GIFTS AND THE GOSPEL

I first came across these insights in an article that is entitled Fifty Ways to Bring Out Your Child’s Best by Thomas Armstrong.

Today’s gospel parable about the servants and their talents is really being about what we can do and how we can assist one another in using our gifts.

After all, isn’t that the key to responding to Jesus’ lesson to us? We can indeed assist one another in identifying and using our gifts.

As the title says, the article that I read gives 50 ways to bring out the best, to bring out the gifts in our children. This morning I want to share just 5 of these ways with you.


FIVE WAYS TO BRING OUT THE GIFTS

FIRST, PAY ATTENTION to what really interests and captivates your child. Be attentive to what your children really feel drawn to do and what they spend their time doing.

Theses interests and activities will say a great deal about where their gifts are. By doing this, you are in effect letting your child discover his or her own giftedness.

In the gospel parable, with the number of talents given as 5, 2 or 1 does not so much mean having more or less talent than others. Instead, they simply represent different gifts and our task is to help our children – and even other adults – identify their own unique gifts.

SECOND, ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD, but do not push or pressure him too much. If we do that, he may become too stressed to learn anything or develop his gifts.

Notice that the master in today’s parable does not pressure. He simply gives his servants the gifts and the opportunities to use them.

THIRD, GIVE YOUR CHILDREN PERMISSION TO MAKE MISTAKES. If they have to do things perfectly, they may never take the risks necessary to discover and develop their gifts.

It is good to assist a child in realizing they’ve made a mistake and in learning from it. But, allow some safe freedom to make mistakes and grow from them.

AND THE FOURTH RULE IS connected with this: DON’T CRITICIZE OR JUDGE YOUR CHILDREN. They may just give up, if they feel evaluated all the time.

These two rules – allowing your children to make mistakes and not criticizing or judging them – are borne out in the third servant in the parable. The servant feels afraid and intimidated and the result is that he does not use and develop his gifts.

AND THE FIFTH RULE: ACCEPT YOUR CHILD AS HE OR SHE IS.

Maybe your son is musically inclined and does not have the athletic ability you want him to have. Or maybe your daughter is more into computers than dance.

The important thing is to take our children as they are, because that will be the best environment for using the gifts they have been given and for them to become the persons God intended them to be.


CONCLUSION

So, these simple, but important rules, will help us to assist one another, especially children but maybe even other adults, in identifying and using their gifts.