“Is a lamp brought in only to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?”
Jesus was referring to what we excusably call our hidden talent. Lack of opportunity perhaps or a commendable disinclination to make a public display of our wares and thereby become open to criticism whether mere sour-graping or the legitimate sort which one’s fellowmen are never in short supply. In any event, such talent such light, gets to be “hidden under a bushel.” By and large, it all boils down to unwillingness to take risks. And Jesus asks us to walk the talk, to proclaim full-throatedly the Gospel, to make a difference.
And in this such a load of work? Insuperable, eminently undoable? Yes and no. All that is wanting is to put our neck on the line by cultivating whatever charism resides in us that we can lay claim to and use it in the service of our Lord.
This adjuration to us by Jesus may sound like a license to flaunt our talent? But of course there’s the proviso, that no false modesty should ever impede any action taken in His service – ERGO, AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM! Now that may sound like sophistry to some, but with the lest will in the world it’s only sound, Jesuitry.
Heroism is individualism stretched to extremes for a cause much greater than whatever else motivates the hero. St. Paul’s metaphor of the human body and its parts for the Church Triumphant not overlooking the lesser parts but giving their due importance in the playing out of things materials and spiritual as man staggers along towards salvation or damnation.
I say St. Paul has put the metaphor on all fours thus emphasizing the concept of teamwork or better yet, ESPIRIT DE CORPS, in such justly memorable terms as to be adjudged most instrumental for the spread of Christianity.
In this spirit we might say that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, say in all humility that it cannot be otherwise!
What we should perhaps more closely study are the miscellaneous indispensabilities of the easily bypassed or overlooked roles of the humbler players of the cast. Behold the management savvy of Jesus in assigning apostles, prophets, teachers, thaumaturgists, drivers out of demons, healers, preachers, and all the other cogs in a harmonious, well-run organization! ESPIRIT DE CORPS indeed. Human Resource Management 101.
