St. Raphael Catholic Church in Copemish shared a note from Rev. Rupen Dario Munoz Jimenez on the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time in its weekly bulletin. 

“This liturgical year has been a blessing for me, and I hope for you too! God has shown his love and mercy during this challenging year in our parishes and understands that we always need to trust in him,” Rev. Jimenez wrote.

We see how God wants us to participate in our salvation in the parable of the talents. We are all given gifts and it is expected that those gifts will be used to bring God the glory that he deserves. 

“My dream is to see in our parishes all the people using their talents and helping me to proclaim the Good News to many people. I love the gospel of the two fish and five loaves of bread. In our human eyes, this is nothing to feed 5 thousand people, but this young guy approached Jesus and offer what he has to fix the problem, and we know what happened,” Rev. Jimenez wrote. 

The parables show us that even when we are given a seemingly small amount, we are expected to use it to produce a large good. 

We are called to develop the gifts that we are given, as Pope Benedict once said. If we fear God in a negative way, then there is certainly little good that can come out of our actions. Instead, we must be positively called to serve him, knowing that God is all-good. 

“I would like to invite you to think this week about the talent God had given to you and how you are producing fruit with that talent. Let us ask God to help us to be "good and faithful servants" so that we may one day enter ‘into the joy of our Lord,’” Rev. Jimenez wrote.