By Terry Lees
“Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching, then use it for teaching. Let the preachers deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent, and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully… Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit…” (Romans 12:5-8,11).
GOOD old St Paul – you can always count on him to tell it as it is.
This man ruthlessly persecuted the early Christians until that fateful day he was thrown from his high horse on the road to Damascus and encountered Jesus – his life forever changed.
“What am I to do, Lord?” Saul asked.
From that day forward, Saul was gone, and the fiery Paul arose to passionately, without fear, proclaim the Good News across vast tracts of the world.
Paul saw the appearance of Jesus as a call or commissioning: ‘God, who has specially chosen me while I was still in my mother’s womb, called me through his grace and chose to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach the Good News about him’ (Galatians 1:15).
Paul was called to witness.
Paul used his gifts to serve, to recruit other disciples.
The disciple principle is each one teach one.
Paul was a master disciple-maker; even two of the Gospel evangelists worked with him – Sts Luke and Mark.
Like St Paul, we are called to witness.
“God has chosen you to know his will …. You are to be his witness before all humankind, testifying to what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22: 15-16).
Jesus instructs us: “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation” (Mark 16:5).
“I have called you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).
We are called to proclaim the Good News, to be ‘fishers of men’, workers with strength of character, courage, firmness, patience, perseverance, and team workers – called to venture into the deep to proclaim God’s Word and catch people for the Kingdom.
Pope Francis, too, exhorts us to use our gifts: “A charism is more than a talent or personal quality. It is a grace, a gift that God gives through the Holy Spirit. Not because someone is better than the others, but rather so that he puts it at the service of others with the same gratitude and love with which he has received it.”
God gives us certain talents and expects us to use them for His greater glory.
“Fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess … God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1: 6-7).
I am called, equipped, sent to witness to others by using my God-given gifts.
The gifts and the grace I receive from God are not for my benefit alone, they are given for the benefit of others.
After an encounter with Jesus, effective evangelisation is a heart-felt response.
To evangelise, to proclaim the Good News, emanates from my heart and is expressed in words inspired by the Spirit.
I am a pilgrim travelling light, doing what I’m called to do, serving God by serving others.
I’m a writer and communicator.
Communication is the gift I share with the world. When I share my words, I share my light.
I have the power to make a positive difference in other’s lives.
My communication must first present the glorious, all-embracing, all-encompassing love-story of a God who is love, who loves you, me and all creation with an abundant, never-ending, magnanimous love – the Mystery that was revealed in Creation and in a small baby who grew to prove the length, breadth, height and depth of that love as he hung from a wooden cross on the hill at Calvary – the God who daily lives and dies for us with an extravagant longing.
I share truthfully, honestly – including my vulnerabilities and sinfulness – sensitively and with courage, to offer an experience of God’s compassion, which is what people seek, not more information about it.
My truth is the truth that helps someone who needs it, the truth someone needs to make a free decision, the truth that keeps an intimate relationship honest, or makes someone laugh, or reveals beauty or a mystery that someone may never see if not told.
And, more than anything, the truth to tell is the truth that we are loved and forgiven all the time, accepted, beautiful and worthy.
What are your gifts?
Be blessed and bless others with your gifts.
Use them for the greater glory of God.
Have a golden day and treasure life.
Terry Lees is a member of the Mount Isa Catholic parish.
