19 Nov 2017:The meaning of the human life/ the value of the human life

By: Fr Simon Ng’ang’a

An elderly person lost a needle which was very essential in his life. He was in deep search of the needle. A young man who was coming from an errand found the the elderly man in the evening desperately searching for the needle outside his house. The young man asked the elderly man what he was searching. In his response, the man said he cannot trace his essential needle. He then asked the elderly man, can you recollect where you lost your needle. He said, yes. I lost it in the house.

The young man asked, ” and why are you searching for it here?” He answered, my lamp has no oil and the house is pitch dark, and since there is enough streetlight outside, I decided to search for it here. The young man while holding back his laughter asked the elderly man, ” If you lost your needle in the house, how would you expect to see it outside”. The elderly man smiled back and the young man understood the meaning of his puzzling act. Isn’t that what we do? We go out to search for the meaning of our life outside ourselves because it’s dark inside ourselves and there is a lot of light outside?

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Philosophy Friedrich Nietzsche

In his book “The joyful wisdom (1882) he presents the shocking story of a madman who on a bright morning lighted a lantern and ran to the market place looking for God and then announced to the jeering crowd that God is dead. “We have killed him…. you and I! We are all his murderers….where are we moving now? ……do we not wonder through an endless nothingness? Does not empty space breath upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not night come continually, darker and darker?

When Nietzsche says that God is dead, he doesn’t mean that God, the eternal being is dead, as he cannot die.

By the death of God, he means the death of our belief in God.
By loosing our belief in God, we have lost the foundation of our truth and value.

Nietzsche- ” He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how?

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Why all these?

Gospel: the parable of talents.

The master gave talents to his three servants:

To the first he gave 5 talents, the second 2 talents, and third -1 talent:

each according to his ability.
He went away.
He gave them freedom for Trading

A talent was not a coin, it was a weight, and therefore it’s value depended on whether the coinage involved was copper, gold or silver.

Talent: it is a symbol of my value in the plan of God. A talent, according to Christ, – the only thing that matters is what we make of ourselves.
A talent must first of all be discovered and recognized. It has been said that “our true birth place is the place in which we awaken to our gifts and talents”.

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It is by living that we discover our talents, and it is by using them that we grow.

The painter Picasso, said, ” it’s not what an artist does that matters, but what he is”

People may have done great things in their public lives, but failed in their private lives.

Most people who are successful in their careers leave their personal lives a long way behind.

Every talent must be developed. ” Hard-work, discipline, patience are required if a talent is to bear it’s full fruit.

God gives men differing gifts =5,2,1

It is not man’s talent that matters; what matters is what how he uses it.

God never demands from a person’s abilities which he has not given, but he demands the person to use to the full the abilities he does posses.

Man are not equal in talents but can be equal in effort

The parable tells us that any talent we have, whether, little or great, we must lay it at the service of a God.

It tells us the reward for work is still more work to do.

The two who had traded their talents were given greater tasks and greater responsibilities in the work of the master.

3 The man who is punished is the one who will not try.

NB: the man who was punished did not lose his talent; he simply did nothing with it.

The condemnation is for the man who, having even one talent, will not try to use it, and will not risk it for the common good.

Which one of us can say that we have made full use of the gifts of grace and nature that God has given us?

Have we not left them unused, or worse, misused them?

1st reading

It sets before us a model, a woman who uses her talents to live an industrious and virtuous life.

She is industrious, caring,wise and virtuous.
She possesses something more valuable than wealthy or beauty.
She possesses a loving heart. She has put her talents at the service of her family, her neighbors, and the poor.
Hence, She has respect of the entire community.

Life is God’s gift to us. What we do with life is our gift to God. By that discovery, we discover our value, our meaning in the plan of God. The time Is now, to make that discovery. Cf second reading.

As for the time and seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourself know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night…… So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.