Top photo shows young adults from around the Diocese participating in a service endeavor during the summer of 2026. There are many way people of all ages and walks of life can use their God-given talents. Matt Marzorati photo
A reflection from Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M.
Someday, each of us will stand before God. And I wonder what he will ask us.
Will he ask how much money we made? How successful we became? How important we were?
I don’t think so.
I suspect his question will be much simpler, but far more challenging:
“I gave you the gift of life. I gave you talents, opportunities and blessings. What did you do with them? What difference did you make?”
That’s really the question at the heart of this Sunday’s Gospel from St. Matthew.
This coming week, I will spend time in Baltimore with my brother bishops from across the country at our annual meeting. Please pray for us.
As I listen to them speak about their dioceses each year, I find myself asking, as I often do: How are we doing in the Diocese of Trenton? How am I doing as its Bishop? Am I making a difference?
But those aren’t questions just for me as Bishop.
Haven’t you asked yourself similar questions?
Am I a good husband or wife? A good mother or father? A good son or daughter? A good friend or neighbor? Am I becoming the person God created me to be?
Sunday’s readings invite us to think about those questions.
In our first reading from the Book of Proverbs, we hear about a faithful wife whose value is “far beyond pearls.” What makes her so valuable? Not her wealth or appearance, but her faithfulness, her generosity and her love.
Scripture tells us that “she reaches out her hands to the poor and extends her arms to the needy.” She uses what God has given her to make life better for others.
And isn’t that what God asks of all of us?
In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells the familiar parable of the talents. A wealthy man, leaving on a journey, entrusts his possessions to three servants. To one he gives five talents, to another two, and to a third, one.
The first two servants put their talents to work and double what they received. The third, afraid of losing what he had been given, buries it in the ground.
When the master returns, he praises the first two servants: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master’s joy.”
But the third servant receives a very different response.
Now, we might feel a little sympathy for him. After all, he didn’t steal the money. He didn’t waste it. He didn’t lose anything! He returned exactly what he had received.
So, what was the problem?
The problem was that he had done nothing with what had been entrusted to him. He allowed fear to keep him from doing any good. He was so afraid of losing what he had that he never put it to use.
And that’s the lesson Jesus wants us to understand.
God has given every one of us something precious. And he calls us to do something with it.
Not everyone receives the same gifts. Not everyone has the same abilities or opportunities. But everyone has something to offer.
And notice something important: the master gives the same praise to the servant with two talents as to the one with five.
God doesn’t measure us against one another. He asks us to be faithful with what he has given us.
You may not have great wealth, but you can be generous. This weekend, for example, Catholics are invited to support the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the U.S. Bishops’ domestic anti-poverty program.
You may not have great influence, but you can encourage someone who is struggling. You may not be able to change the world, but you can change someone’s world.
A parent teaching a child to pray. A husband or wife remaining faithful through difficult times. A young person standing up for someone being bullied. A parishioner visiting someone who is elderly, sick or alone. A neighbor helping a family in need.
These may seem like little things. But in God’s eyes, they are not little at all.
And there’s something else worth remembering. The third servant buried his talent because he was afraid.
How often does fear keep us from doing what we know is right?
Afraid of failing. Afraid of criticism. Afraid of getting involved. Afraid that what we have to offer isn’t good enough.
And so, we do nothing.
But God did not give us our gifts to bury them. He gave them to us to put them to work, to use them in loving service to others.
That’s true for each of us. And it’s true for us as a Church.
I often say that the Diocese of Trenton lives in its parishes. Our parishes live in their families. And our families live through the faith, love and commitment of people like you.
The future of our Diocese depends not simply upon what happens in the Bishop’s office, but upon what happens in our churches, our schools, our homes and our neighborhoods.
It depends upon people willing to share their faith; serve those in need; welcome those who feel forgotten, and pass on the gift of our Catholic faith to the next generation.
The Church needs your gifts. The Lord is counting on you.
In our second reading, St. Paul reminds us that we are “children of the light.” He tells us to stay awake, to remain alert.
Why? Because our time here is limited. We don’t know how many days God will give us.
That’s not meant to frighten us. It’s meant to wake us up!
There is good we can do today. Someone we can forgive today. Someone we can help today. Someone who needs our love today.
We cannot keep putting off until tomorrow the good God is asking us to do today.
As we gather around the altar at Mass, we remember that God has given us his greatest gift: his Son, Jesus Christ. And in the Eucharist, Jesus gives us his very self. He holds nothing back.
God asks us to live with that same generosity.
So let me leave you with three simple questions I regularly ask myself, and I invite you to ask yourself:
What has God given me?
What am I doing with those gifts?
And what more could I do?
My brothers and sisters, none of us knows how much time we have been given. But all of us know that we have been given something.
And God is asking us not to bury it, not to waste it and not to let fear keep us from using it.
We don’t have to be famous. We don’t have to accomplish extraordinary things. We don’t have to change the whole world.
We simply have to make a difference in the lives of the people God has placed in our path.
And perhaps, when our lives are over and we stand before the Lord, he won’t ask how much we accumulated; how important we became, or how much recognition we received.
He will ask what we did with the gifts he entrusted to us.
May we be able to look back on our lives knowing that we loved generously, served faithfully, gave freely and never buried the gifts God gave us.
And may we one day hear the words every Christian longs to hear:
“Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master’s joy.”
My brothers and sisters, that’s the difference God is calling us to make. That’s the life he is calling us to live.
And, ultimately, isn’t that what we’re living for?