I love watching the many talent shows on TV. Often a contestant walks in, and we think, “Why is she there?”, “The nerve” or “He will never make it”. Then the person does his own thing, and we are stunned. We tell ourselves, “Unbelievable! Where did he get that talent?”

My dear friends the Gospel tells us that all of us have a gift from God. All of us have talents. Some have five, some have four and some have one talent. But regardless of how many talents we have, three things we remember:

1. One reading talks about an ideal mother and wife who uses her talents in the service of her family and the poor. Hence, we are reminded that with the talent that we have, hopefully, we can make this world a better place to live in by using our talents for humanity.
   
2. Another reading reminds us that talent is a gift: use it or lose it. When we use our talents well, we live fruitful lives because we are a blessing to others. When we bless others, the blessings come back to us – 30 fold, 60 fold, and even a 100 fold. 
   
3. We need to believe in ourselves. The first enemy that we will have to face is fear – fear of failure. Going back to the talent shows, when you hear the stories of the people, all of them faced adversity, trials, pains, losses, and sacrifices. The key lesson is that they never gave up. They knew God had a purpose in giving them this talent and we have to be strong because God will never fail us. At a given time, the hard work will bear fruit.

Who we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. Use our talents well.